Drones, 5G battlefield comms take centre stage at Ex Wallaby

ROCKHAMPTON – Some 6,000 Singapore soldiers and 1,200 platforms are being put through their paces at Exercise Wallaby, the Republic’s largest unilateral overseas military drill.

The annual exercise sees SAF validate the resilience of its battlefield connectivity through its 5G-enabled aerial communications node while dealing with drone threats via its counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS).

Building on drone trials in past editions of the exercise, the Singapore Infantry Regiment’s 5th battalion (5SIR) will test its unmanned capabilities, including attack-capable drones.

5SIR will also conduct platoon urban operations live-firing in Shoalwater Bay’s Urban Operations Live-Fire Facilities, marking the first time that full-time national servicemen will undergo live-firing there.

The exercise, which is in its 36th edition, began in September and is scheduled to end on Nov 2.

Personnel involved include those from the Singapore Army, Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), Future Systems and Technology Directorate, the Defence Science and Technology Agency, the DSO National Laboratories and the Digital and Intelligence Service.

Now in its third phase or “frame”, the drills will involve army units such as armour, infantry and signals, as well as the RSAF’s Apache and Chinook helicopters.

The training frame’s exercise director, Colonel Joshua Goh, said Exercise Wallaby enables SAF to evaluate emerging technologies and operating concepts under realistic field conditions.

This is because Shoalwater Bay Training Area, which is located in Australia’s eastern state of Queensland, is five times the size of Singapore.

One such concept is the Next Generation Infantry Battalions (NGIB), which the Ministry of Defence first mentioned in 2022 during the parliamentary debate on its budget.

MINDEF had said then that the NGIB would be one part of the larger Next Gen SAF, which, by 2040, will have a range of new assets and capabilities to better defend the city-state’s land, water and skies. These include Invincible-class submarines and unmanned vessels for the Republic of Singapore Navy, and F-35 fighter jets for the RSAF.

Since then, the SAF has been expanding drone training and testing across its services and units.

In August 2025, Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing announced that all recruits at the Basic Military Training Centre on Pulau Tekong will learn to use drone technology and to counter it. Each company of recruits, comprising about 250 soldiers, has 40 drones. Recruits get about six hours of drone training.

At Exercise Wallaby in 2025, the SAF undertook a series of field trials involving unmanned and autonomous vehicles.

These included the use of a coordinated swarm of more than 50 drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

Goh told the media on Oct 22 that the NGIB, which will be equipped with a suite of drones, represents an evolution in how the SAF’s infantry is organised and fights.

“The NGIB brings together new concepts, structures and systems to enhance operational flexibility and combat effectiveness,” he said.

Frame air director Ng Kehang said the trialling of new technologies shows how the SAF is adapting to evolving operating environments. For instance, the widespread use of drones on the battlefield can cause lower levels of airspace to become congested, which poses a big challenge for helicopter operations. That is why C-UAS operations are among the defence capabilities that are top of mind for the RSAF, he added.

“The proliferation of unmanned aerial systems in recent times has really hit us quite hard. In the past, we never really thought that the UAS could be used in such a way,” said Ng.

In addition to C-UAS trials at Exercise Wallaby, RSAF will also validate its Helicopter Decision Support System, which leverages AI to help pilots plan routes.

Goh noted that more cyber equipment is being incorporated into the exercise than ever before as modern warfare continues to evolve.

There is always a fight towards asymmetry, “trying to outthink, outsee and outlast the enemy, and using different means to do so, such as unmanned systems”, he said.

“These help preserve your own forces while giving you an edge to look further.”