Senior Minister of State for Defence and Foreign Affairs Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman visited the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF)'s Flaming Arrow Challenge 2017 (FAC17) at the SAFTI Live Firing Area this morning. During his visit, Dr Maliki was briefed on how the RSAF conducts its air defence operations to keep Singapore's skies safe, gained first-hand experience operating a Ground-Based Air Defence (GBAD) system, and interacted with Operationally-Ready National Servicemen (NSmen) who participated in FAC17.
He also experienced, from an RSAF Super Puma helicopter, how helicopters execute flight manoeuvres to evade GBAD missiles, simulated in the aircraft engagement event of the challenge.
FAC17, held from 9 to 20 January 2017, allows the RSAF to sharpen its air defence capabilities and hones the competency of the GBAD units in air defence operations. This year's challenge involves 132 personnel from eight RSAF units. The GBAD systems deployed during this challenge are the Agile Multiple Beam (AMB) Radar, Improved Homing All the Way Killer (I-HAWK), Surface-to-Air Python-5 and DERby (SPYDER) and RBS-70.
FAC17 is one of seven RSAF Command Challenges organised annually by the RSAF's Operational Commands that stretch and test the capabilities and proficiencies of our servicemen and women locally. The other six Command Challenges are the Air Warrior Challenge, Bigshot Challenge, Eagle Challenge, Top Ace Challenge, Top Guardian Challenge and Top Notch Challenge. These challenges aim to create a competitive environment for the RSAF's servicemen and women to pit their skills against each other while strengthening their operational standards, and also forge stronger camaraderie within the RSAF.
(Sing Mindef)