Pulau Tekong to be expanded, will have 10km manoeuvre training area for soldiers & combat vehicles

Pulau Tekong will be expanded to stretch 10km in distance, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen announced in Parliament on Mar. 3, at the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF)'s Committee of Supply debate.

The expansion means that Pulau Tekong will serve as a second manoeuvre training area for soldiers and combat vehicles, as the army is becoming increasingly platform-based, he added.

Thus far, the only manoeuvre training area in Singapore is the area around Tengeh Reservoir.

Facilities that will be included in the expansion include buildings for urban combat training, sites for amphibious and heliborne training, as well as a enhanced Basic Military Training (BMT) field camp site.

Overseas training areas in Australia have also been expanded

As for overseas training spaces, the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland, Australia has been expanded with many new and better facilities, he noted.

"As a result of this expansion, we were able to conduct the largest edition of Exercise Wallaby – the SAF’s largest overseas unilateral exercise – last year with over 6,200 personnel and approximately 490 platforms," Ng highlighted.

In addition, following the development of the adjacent Greenvale Training Area, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will have a combined training area 10 times the size of Singapore.

"This combined training area will allow us to deploy up to 14,000 personnel (and) 2,400 vehicles annually, so that the SAF can exercise its full range of capabilities — land, sea, air, and digital," he said.

"We thank the government and people of Australia for these opportunities," Ng added, and said Singapore is looking forward to commemorating the 10th anniversary of its comprehensive strategic partnership with Australia this year.

Top screenshot from Housing & Development Board/Facebook and MINDEF