Singapore debuts digital and intelligence arm at ‘Super Garuda Shield' drills

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has deployed resources from its Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) in a multilateral exercise known as ‘Super Garuda Shield', which typically focuses on naval, land, and amphibious assault exercises.

These United States and Indonesia-hosted exercises took place in Indonesia from 26 August to 6 September, according to a statement that was issued by the Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) on the last day of the drills.

The drills were carried out at various locations across East Java.

In its statement, MINDEF noted that the DIS was deployed to the exercise for the first time. During the drills, DIS personnel carried out professional exchanges on cyber-defence techniques with their foreign counterparts during a cyber-defence exercise.

Besides the DIS, the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) deployed its Endurance-class landing platform dock (LPD) RSS Resolution to the drills.

It participated in various maritime and amphibious serials with four ships from the Indonesian Navy and the US Navy, including cross-deck landings, air-defence serials, manoeuvring exercises, as well as ship-to-shore operations, MINDEF said.

The statement stopped short of revealing details of the other ships involved, but Janes has since verified these to be the USN San Antonio-class amphibious ship USS Green Bay, the Indonesian Navy Diponegoro-class corvette KRI Frans Kaisiepo, and the Indonesian Navy LPD ship KRI Makassar.

Also participating in these exercises were representatives from the Australian, Japanese, and UK armed forces.

For more information, please seeFeature: Indo-Pacific militaries pursue combat cloud capabilities .