Fresh details of the Republic of Singapore Navy's (RSN's) stealthy naval interceptor development programme were revealed during a media event at the service's primary facility of Changi Naval Base on 25 November.
The new interceptor, called the Specialised Marine Craft (SMC), made its public debut during the country's National Day celebration on 9 August as part of the military display aimed at showcasing the Singapore Armed Forces' latest capabilities. The SMC replaces the service's 20 tonne Fast Boat inshore patrol craft, which were delivered from 1990 and subsequently retired in 2008.
Lieutenant Colonel Tan Say Yong, head of the RSN's Specialised Craft Group (SCG) that operates the SMC and one of the key architects involved in its development, said the SMC's primary role is to perform inshore and coastal interception of threats at sea as one of the service's surface assets within its multi-layered and networked maritime security defence architecture
The SMC is also designed to perform base defence for the country's main naval operations facilities, force protection for other RSN assets, as well as participate in wider maritime security operations with the service's Fearless-class patrol vessels and future Littoral Mission Vessels.
The craft is operated by a lean crew complement of only four personnel - comprising a commander, coxswain, navigator, and weapons/communications specialist - as a result of extensive human-factor engineering that enables the crew to access critical information and functions from multifunction, reconfigurable consoles assigned to each personnel.
IHS Jane's has learnt that the RSN currently operates two distinct variants of the aluminium-hulled craft, which are designated by the SCG as the Type 1 and Type 2 models.
(Jane's)
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