2007/05 - Afghanistan reconstruction effort

Exercise/Operation

Afghanistan reconstruction effort

Year

2007

The RSAF deployed UAVs and personnel to support the ISAF’s Afghanistan reconstruction, providing critical surveillance and security.

From 16 May 2007 to 22 June 2013, the SAF contributed 492 troops to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a mission led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to aid in rebuilding Afghanistan after years of war.

Together with the Army Intelligence community, the RSAF’s 128 Squadron deployed a UAV detachment as part of the operations. It was the first time that the SAF had deployed a UAV in an active conflict zone. The SAF also built health facilities; provided dental, medical, and surgical treatment; and helped enhance the ISAF's security with its weapon locating radar, UAV, and imagery analysis teams.

Two soldiers near a small grey drone with desert landscape and mountains in the background.

The UAV task group was the single largest deployment the SAF had in Afghanistan.

A group of uniformed people pose in desert terrain with equipment.

More than 350 SAF personnel were deployed to Afghanistan to participate in this NATO-led ISAF operation.

“The Singapore deployment is vital to what we are doing. It provides over-watch for all of our soldiers every day. They are on time, on target every day.”

COL James Creighton, Commander, Combined Team Uruzgan, 2010 on the UAV task group's critical role in the mission to provide information on ground conditions