ARIZONA — The Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) most complex live-fire war games is in full swing again at the Arizona desert, in a space almost twice the size of Singapore’s training airspace over the South China Sea.

Codenamed Forging Sabre, this year’s exercise involves an unpredictable enemy — role-played by SAF personnel — which is equipped with more assets such as remote-controlled vehicles and has the capability to launch offensives from various directions.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that troopers are required to take out up to six mobile targets simultaneously, compared to just two in the previous edition of the exercise held in 2013.

Exercise Forging Sabre has been held once every two years since 2005. As part of this year’s exercise, drones and commandos will detect enemies and feed information back to the Command Post, which decides on what attacks to launch. The sensors, shooters, and Command Post personnel are integrated into a “single weapon system”, said exercise director Colonel Tommy Tan Ah Han, who uses the callsign “Tahan”.

“We are testing the whole loop, from fighting all the way in, (dropping) the bombs — we do not just test the competency of operators, we also validate the weapons’ capability — then fight their way out to survive,” he said.

Among the military assets deployed for the complex mission is the Heron-1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). For the first time in Exercise Forging Sabre, the Heron-1 will be deployed not only for surveillance, but to assist fighter planes and attack helicopters to take out multiple targets in a single wave.

About 600 airmen and commandos and 33 SAF assets are being deployed in the exercise, including four Heron-1s, 10 F-15SG fighter jets, 10 F-16C/D fighter jets, six Apache attack helicopters and three Chinook helicopters. Munitions to be fired include Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs.

As part of efforts to enhance realism of the training, the exercise will see, for the first time, Chinooks being equipped with 3G Air Mobile Life Support Units which allow a Heli Medical Evacuation team to monitor casualties and perform Intensive Care Unit-type procedures in air.

Col Tan said: “In planning scenarios for (Exercise Forging Sabre), we try to think of something that will really push the boundaries.”