US-Singapore Daring Warrior 2018 exercise completed.

In October, the Singapore armed Forces (SAF) and US Army held the most recent iteration of a military exercise. As commented by Prashanth Parameswaran on The Diplomat, the United States is a key supplier of defense technology and facilities for military training for Singapore, while the city-state is a valuable regional partner that across a range of issues from counterterrorism to maritime security while also hosting a U.S. Navy logistics command unit that coordinates regional operations.

M142 HIMARS firig a missile (Picture source: Lockheed Martin)

The two counties continue to interact regularly through several exchanges, exercises, and training opportunities. One of the exercises conducted by the two sides is Exercise Daring Warrior (XDW), which was first conducted back in 2010. From October 8 to 25, the seventh iteration of Exercise Daring Warrior took place. The exercise was conducted at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in the United States. It involved approximately 150 SAF personnel and 70 personnel from the U.S. Army. The highlight of the exercise was a combined live-firing by the U.S. and Singaporean armies, where the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the 23rd Battalion, Singapore Artillery (23 SA) and the Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) from the 2nd Battalion, 18th Field Artillery Regiment, U.S. Army, simultaneously fired at a distant target. The exercise saw the visit of Singapore Senior Minister of State for Defense Mohamad Maliki bin Osman to witness the SAF’s artillery live-firing.

Exercise Daring Warrior will be followed by other defense-related developments in the bilateral relationship across various realms and at different levels between the two sides. But its execution this month has once again spotlighted the activity underway between the United States and one of its key security partners.