S'pore navy on target in Pacific exercise:
Ability to manage with smaller crew impresses US Navy commander
Mar 15, 2010 - ABOARD RSS STALWART (IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN): Deep in the bowels of the stealth frigate RSS Stalwart, Singapore naval officers in the warship's Combat Information Centre have their sights locked on a hostile nuclear submarine. The submerged vessel was first spotted lurking about six nautical miles (11km) away - close enough for it to strike the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) frigate and other United States Navy warships patrolling the choppy Pacific Ocean.
In naval parlance, that's a 'hot contact'. The 80-member crew of the Stalwart swing into action and within minutes, an S-70B Sikorsky Seahawk naval helicopter is in the air to keep the threat at bay. Throughout the 12-hour game of hide-and-seek, the Seahawk's sharp ears - dipping sonars that can 'hear' as deep as 400m underwater - trumped and held off any hostile advances.
The anti-submarine helicopter, the latest weapon in RSN's arsenal, can also scour the seas some 100 nautical miles away and travel five times faster than the frigate it operates off, which typically travels at a speed of about 20 knots. Yesterday, the Seahawk and the frigate were watching over the 1,600 sq km water body off San Diego - more than twice the size of Singapore.
Their 'sense and strike' manoeuvres were part of an eight-day exercise ending today, which saw the deployment of two of the RSN's six anti-submarine helicopters.
Also part of the 1,500-man exercise, codenamed Golden Merlion, were five warships, six naval helicopters, two maritime patrol aircraft and a nuclear submarine from the US Navy. The exercise, jointly organised by the Singapore and US navies, demonstrated why the Seahawk was the predatory bird of choice for the RSN.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who witnessed the outcome of the exercise off the California coast yesterday, said the chopper will see the Singapore Armed Forces 'well into the future'. Also present at the drill were senior SAF officers such as the Chief of Navy, Rear-Admiral Chew Men Leong, and Colonel Wellman Wan, commander of the RSN's First Flotilla...
But what gives the SAF 'a major leap forward' is its ability to pair up the chopper and its stealth warships so that it can 'dominate a much greater area of sea and airspace'. 'The fact is that you can put both the ship and the aircraft together and sort of multiply the capabilities of both operating together as one system,' said DPM Teo.
Yesterday's drill, involving both the RSN's frigates and Seahawks, is the realisation of a plan that was put in place 10 years ago when the navy first acquired the six strike vessels from France. In 2005, it then place the order for the six anti-submarine helicopters to operate off the frigates. The Republic of Singapore Air Force pilots and their ground crew have been training on similar choppers in the US since October 2007 before the Republic took delivery of its own Seahawks last year. Moving forward, DPM Teo said the SAF will be 'ramping up' the frigate programme.
Colonel Wan, who commands the six missile corvettes and six frigates in the First Flotilla, told The Straits Times that this would include sharing the know-how with the other five frigates and adapting operations to the shallower and more crowded South China Sea and local waters.
The Singaporeans training in San Diego will return home in June this year with at least three of the six naval helicopters to set up the Seahawk squadron. The commander of the US Navy's Third Fleet, Vice-Admiral Richard Hunt, told reporters that he was impressed with the RSN's ability to do more with a 80-man crew compared with frigates of the same class and capabilities elsewhere, which are usually crewed by 150 to 180 people. The clincher was how RSN uses technology and machines to do more with fewer operators. Vice-Adm Hunt added that the US will have much to learn from the RSN which he thinks is 'towards the top of all navies I've gotten to see'.
