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Singapore Armed Forces personnel have been injured in a vehicle collision involving two Hunter armoured fighting vehicles deployed to a multinational training exercise in Queensland.
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A dozen Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) servicemen sustained non-serious injuries and were transported to the hospital following the incident during Exercise Wallaby, the SAF’s largest overseas unilateral exercise, on 24 September.
“At approximately 7.40pm Australia time, one Hunter armoured fighting vehicle rear-ended another while moving back to base at Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland, Australia,” according to a statement published by the Ministry of Defence of Singapore.
“Twelve SAF servicemen sustained non-serious injuries and they have been transported to the hospital. They are currently being treated or recovering well.
“The safety and wellbeing of our people is of paramount importance. The Army has called for a safety pause to remind drivers to maintain proper distance. MINDEF/SAF wish the servicemen a speedy recovery.”
More than 6,200 personnel and 490 platforms from the Singapore Army, the Republic of Singapore Air Force, and the Digital and Intelligence Service are conducting Exercise Wallaby from 8 September to 3 November.
The initial stage of the exercise from 8 to 26 September involves the coordination of Singapore Army’s Armour, Army Intelligence, Combat Engineer and Combat Service Support units, and the RSAF’s aircraft, ground-based Air Defence assets and Air-Land Tactical Control Centre.
Hunter armoured fighting vehicles from the 41st Battalion Singapore Armoured Regiment are attending the exercise for the first time and were scheduled to undertake armour live firing.
The Hunter armoured fighting vehicles retain a crew of three and a carrying capacity of up to eight dismounted troops. Each vehicle is armed with a remote-controlled weapon station featuring a 30mm cannon, anti-tank guided missile, 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and 76mm smoke grenade launcher.
In addition, each Hunter features safety items such as audio and visual alerts, emergency stop features (e-brake, e-horn and turret e-stop), safety distance markers embedded in driving camera displays, reverse view cameras (vehicle commander and section commander) as well as voice and video recording.
