Roy Choo

USS America and her embarked 31st MEU makes a grand entrance into Sydney Harbour this morning, signaling that Ex. Talisman Sabre’25 is just around the corner.

Was fortunate to have attended the previous two exercises in 2008 and 2016 and witnessed firsthand the effort to generate airpower from a six-lane public road.

The site of the current Lim Chu Kang Road, which has hosted seven Singapore AF alternate runway exercises Ex. Torrent since 1986, will be closed for good early tomorrow morning as part of a road realignment to accommodate the expansion of Tengah Air Base.

USN 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge departs sunny Sydney last weekend after a five-day port visit. Also a close-up of the pair of embarked MH-60S from HSC-12 “Golden Falcons”.

Fortunate to have caught a Taiwanese photo-recce RF-5E Tigergazer in my latest visit to Hualien earlier this week. With the remaining ROCAF F-5s on the verge of retirement, sorties are few and far between.

… these Herks have also been active in recent days.

Banking for short finals, 732 was one of 2 similarly configured RSAF C-130H to return after a really long sortie. There has been signalling of ops readiness on social media pages by all four Singapore’s armed services, likely due to the MAF/JMF exercise across the straits and…

executives of a training and simulation company shared with me how they helped to establish the simulators for the A-4SU years ago. (3/n)

farewell event. Still a regret not making it to Cazuax to see the Skyhawks for a final time before they bowed out of service in 2012.

The Singaporean Skyhawks are still spoken about occasionally by industry. In a wide-ranging interview at the Avalon Airshow last week, (2/n)

Today marks 20 years to the day on 31March2005 when the Singapore AF A-4SU Super Skyhawks flew their last sorties from Singapore. It was an unforgettable memory when 12 twin-seat TA-4SUs - which the RSAF flew in operational roles - mass-launched out of Tengah that morning for a (1/n)

… and the Ruiyuan 2 UAV, with finances cited as one of the reasons.

Testing of Taiwan’s air-launched supersonic anti-ship missile commences Should it be introduced into service, the air-launched Hsiung Feng 3 could boost Taiwan’s anti-ship missile capacity and kill zones.

An air-launched HF-3 will add to TW’s anti-ship missile capacity and lethality.. only if the development effort proves successful and MND follows thru with the procurement. Orders have yet to be placed for recent programs such as the updated TC-2 AAM under the Ben Chien project …

Singapore eyes C-295MPA and P-8 for maritime patrol aircraft requirement The down-selection of both the aircraft comes amid maritime tensions in the region.

I took a look at Singapore’s down-selection of the C-295MPA and P-8 for its MPA recapitalisation.

Reflecting the the ever-growing danger posed by uncrewed aerial systems, the island air defence system will be enhanced with new sensors, kinetic and non-kinetic weapons to deal with these threats. A Counter-UAS Development and Operations group has also been established

The Singapore Army's 15–year old Terrex ICV will be replaced with a similar 4x4 vehicle, known as the Titan, but with greater firepower in the form of a 30mm gun. ST's Terrex s5,with hybrid electric drive, could possibly form a basis for this new vehicle? shephardmedia.com/news/landwar...

He also states that Singapore is looking at the P–8 and C–295MPA as a replacement for its 30–year old Fokker 50MPA. I spoke to Boeing on their P–8 offering for the MPA program last year shephardmedia.com/news/naval-w...

At the currently ongoing parliamentary budgetary debate, Singapore defence minister announces a purchase of two additional Invincible–class subs from TKMS for a fleet of six. He stated that a larger fleet will allow better operational capacity.

Best analysis I have seen, from a former foreign service officer friend of mine.

Singapore adds Python-5 missile capability to upgraded F-16s Singapore’s upgraded F-16s now have an extra bite with the Rafael Python-5 air-to-air missile.

My story on this back in 2023: www.shephardmedia.com/news/air-war...

Almost like a dream come true seeing pictures of Python 5 AAMs hanging off a Singapore F-16D+ in recent days. Since the early 2000s, the RSAF was rumoured to have taken delivery of the earlier but identical-looking Python 4 missiles for its F-16s, F-5s (and possibly A-4s).

Oshkosh and ST Engineering for the US Army CATV competition. Headlight configuration is also identical to the CATV contender. Hence likely this is one of the company's CATV prototypes. That being said, Singapore was due to receive its first Bronco 3s this year. 3/n

It is noteworthy that ST Engineering has been doing Bronco 3 trials & demonstrations overseas for years now. So there is a possibility this AFV could just be transiting thru TPE. Mods to this Bronco 3 include a winch at the front -- so far only seen on the variant submitted jointly by 2/n

First Post 😀. Taiwanese media reported that the ST Engineering Bronco 3 spotted at Taipei Taoyuan airport as likely being a Singapore Army one that has undergone training on the island as part of 'Ex Starlight'. I’m not too sure about this. 1/n www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Px5...