SWIFT MULTI-AGENCY TAKEDOWN AT EXERCISE HIGHCREST

A pair of speedboats carrying illegal arms is racing towards Singapore's eastern shore.

The waters look clear but the island nation's security agencies have already picked them up. With the Singapore Maritime Coordination Centre (SMCC) at the helm, agencies such as the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) tracked the speedboats' whereabouts with their respective ships.

Police Coast Guard (PCG) vessels are despatched and close in quickly on the speedboats. They fire on the speedboats' motors to disable them after the crew ignore repeated warnings.

On shore, accomplices lie in wait for the speedboat to arrive. They too, are picked up by the national security agencies' coastal surveillance systems and fast-response units are sent to arrest the perpetrators.

This was one of the scenarios at this year's Exercise Highcrest that tested the response of national security agencies to attacks spanning land and sea.

Held from 19 to 26 Oct, the exercise involved about 300 personnel from 14 agencies that included the RSN, SPF and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

Speaking to media after visiting the exercise on 26 Oct, Senior Minister of State for Defence, Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, said: "The terror threat, especially from the maritime domain, is real and present. Singapore is an island surrounded by seas (While) we have prospered with the waters, it also presents us with vulnerabilities.

"What's important is (to have) a Whole-of-Government response, and to be ready for such eventualities."

During the visit, Dr Maliki was also shown how the SMCC works to quickly identify threats by making use of its surveillance and sense-making capabilities.

For example, duty personnel at the SMCC trawl through the Web 24/7 looking for signs of activities that could be security threats for Singapore.

After corroborating the open-source information with data from other agencies, the SMCC quickly sifts out credible threats from a sea of suspicious activities.

This is the first time that Exercise Highcrest is working together with another national counterterrorism exercise, land-based Exercise Northstar to see how attacks on land could impact operations at sea, and vice versa.

Said SMCC's Director of the National Maritime Sense Making Group, Colonel (COL) Nicholas Lim: "Looking at past terrorist attacks around the world, we see how these attacks can unfold (and) I think we have to be prepared for all kinds of eventualities of how terrorist attacks could unfold.

"(That is why) the agencies are working together, to make sure that we can handle the threats."