Exercise Forging Sabre 2025 Showcases the SAF’s Adaptability and Hones Multi-level Integration: Mr Chan Chun Sing

Minister for Defence Mr Chan Chun Sing receiving a brief by Exercise Director Brigadier General (BG) Teo Soo Yeow at the Command Post of Exercise Forging Sabre 2025.

Mr Chan meeting with exercise participants.

Mr Chan and Mayor of Mountain Home Mr Rich Sykes with personnel from the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and The United States Air Force.

Mr Chan meeting with the family members of personnel from the Peace Carvin V Detachment.

Minister for Defence Mr Chan Chun Sing visited Exercise Forging Sabre 2025 (XFS 25) in Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, on 13 September (Singapore time). This is the tenth iteration of the biennial integrated sense and strike exercise, and it involves more than 800 personnel from across the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and Defence Technology Community.

Mr Chan interacted with servicemen and women who participated in the exercise and was briefed on their various roles as well as how they worked together to successfully execute complex sense and strike missions. Mr Chan witnessed how the SAF hones its sharp edge through experiments, drills and validations of sense and strike capabilities through the exercise’s increased scope and scenario complexity. While in Idaho, Mr Chan also took the opportunity to interact with the families of service personnel who are from Peace Carvin V Detachment.

Speaking after the visit, Mr Chan highlighted that the value of Exercise Forging Sabre lies in how it integrates different capabilities together and the SAF's readiness to adapt in complex scenarios. Mr Chan explained that the exercise demonstrates different levels of integration – for example, from the command post to last mile delivery of munitions, across the four services, with the Defence Technology Community, and the integration of capabilities across kinetic to non-kinetic options. Emphasising the importance of integration in the modern battlefield, he said, "Integration is not just amongst the four services, but it is also how we integrate the four Services with the technological side such as DSTA… We have DSTA engineers together with us, integrating the technological products as part of the exercise."

Highlighting the importance of adaptability for the SAF, Mr Chan said, "What we are seeing in Exercise Forging Sabre is what we call the simultaneous adaptation capability, which means that as we use our current processes, the engineers and operators are constantly evolving them, bringing in new capabilities without having to wait for the next exercise cycle. The ability to adapt and refine processes in real time is actually our winning edge beyond our capabilities."

Mr Chan also thanked the US for hosting the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF)’s detachments and supporting the conduct of Ex Forging Sabre. The vast training airspace and challenging operational environments enable our servicemen and women to sharpen their capabilities and enhance their operational readiness. This deepens both countries’ people-to-people ties and is also a strong testament to the excellent and longstanding bilateral defence relationship between Singapore and the US.