SINGAPORE – On March 19, the Singapore Armed Forces officially opened the first phase of its next-generation urban training facility that Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen announced in 2017.
Dr Ng had billed Safti City as the most technologically advanced in the world for realistic urban training, calling the multi-million-dollar project an investment that would last the SAF for a generation as security challenges evolve.
The Straits Times looks into what is Safti City, what makes it unique and why it is needed.
Q: What is Safti City?
A: Safti City is designed to resemble a densely populated urban city, presenting a realistic environment to challenge SAF soldiers in the complexities of urban operations.
The entire Safti City training area will span 88ha, just slightly larger than the size of the Botanic Gardens.
The newly opened first phase in Lim Chu Kang features a mix of low and high-rise buildings with multiple entries and exits, interconnected buildings and a subterranean environment.
This 17ha facility – roughly equivalent to the size of 24 football fields – comprises 71 buildings that includes high-rise 12-storey towers representing offices and hotels. It has a simulated transport hub with a bus interchange, MRT platforms and decommissioned trains donated by the Land Transport Authority.
ST20250313_202524000470/mysafti19/Shintaro Tay/Mike Yeo/***Embargoed until March 19, 2025, 5.30pm***Preview of Safti City on March 13, 2025.
The newly opened Safti City Phase 1 in Lim Chu Kang features a mix of low and high-rise buildings with multiple entries and exits, interconnected buildings and a subterranean environment.ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
In addition to combat training, the area can be used in scenarios like counter-terrorism, homeland security and disaster relief training. Other agencies like the Home Team will also be able to derive training value from it.
Other unique features of Safti City Phase 1 include heavy use of technology to make training more realistic. These include smart targets that can “shoot back” and trigger body worn sensors on soldiers when they have been “hit”.
The facility is fitted with 11,000 sensors, some of which measure the condition of the walls of the buildings and register “damage” after being struck by simulated weapons.
Other sensors track the movements of soldiers inside the buildings, to help with post-exercise debriefs, along with footage from CCTV cameras. These systems allow exercise controllers and unit commanders to conduct post-mortems and assess the performance of the soldiers during the exercise.
Phase 2 is currently being planned, and will be completed in a few years.
Based on a map previously issued by the Ministry of Defence, it will be located next to Poyan Reservoir in Lim Chu Kang, some distance away from Phase 1.
It will have a simulated petrochemical complex, warehouses, container parks and industrial buildings, and ST understands that it will also include a ferry terminal.
This will enable the SAF and other agencies to conduct training for protection of critical infrastructure and scenarios set in a more industrial setting, with the kind of interior layouts of these kinds of buildings and structures being typically very different from those found in Safti City Phase 1.
Q: What makes Safti City stand apart?
A: The scale of this one-of-a-kind urban training facility means that very realistic training missions can be carried out. For example, having soldiers move through forest and grassland to infiltrate an urban area via underground storm drains to avoid detection.
The purpose-built buildings also give an added sense of realism as they are concrete and steel structures and not repurposed shipping containers cobbled together to resemble buildings, like those found in some urban training areas overseas.
One of the buildings, for example, has been built to resemble a damaged structure for training in missions such as disaster relief.
Additionally, large swing doors have been incorporated into many buildings in the facility to allow for the layouts to be changed and updated by blocking access to some roads.
This means that the training area is kept fresh and soldiers will not get complacent due to familiarity with the layout, and allows exercise controllers to vary the difficulty level of exercises.
Mindef has also developed various battlefield effects systems to simulate the sights and sounds of war. These mimic explosions, smoke, gunfire and even rocket-propelled grenades to enhance realism.
Dr Ng noted that having visited several urban training facilities belonging to the world’s advanced militaries, none of them approached the complexity of Safti City. He said some consist of shipping containers stacked together to simulate multi-storey buildings, with holes cut in them for windows and doorways.
Q: How else does it help the SAF to train?
A: Going beyond land forces, the facility will also enable other SAF vocations, such as drone operators, to train in a high-density urban setting. And some buildings are designed for helicopter-borne missions like rappelling, widening the range of training to be performed on-site.
Together with the technological enablers, it will allow SAF soldiers to train in a realistic, high-density urban training environment that includes the sights and sounds of battle.
It can serve as a testing ground for the SAF to experiment with new ideas and new technologies.
During Dr Ng’s visit to Safti City on March 19, Mindef displayed a Quad Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), which it had been trialling at the facility.
The four-legged remote controlled robot has machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities, and can be used for enhanced surveillance and detection operations in urban and other environments.
According to Mindef, the Quad UGV, which is similar to the robot dogs designed by Boston Dynamics in the US, is capable of righting itself when overturned and can operate in all terrains.
ST20250319_202565800473/mysafti19/Mike Yeo/Jason Quah A quad-unmanned ground vehicle pictured at the opening ceremony for SAFTI City on March 19, 2025. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
A quad-unmanned ground vehicle, which can be used to enhance surveillance and detection, at the opening ceremony of Safti City Phase 1 on March 19.ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
Q: Why does Singapore need such a facility?
A: SAF’s urban training facilities built in the 1990s were made up of clusters of low-level buildings replicating traditional shophouses and provision shops, and are no longer relevant as the urban landscape and security challenges have since evolved.
A new kind of urban training facility is therefore needed, and Mindef says that Safti City is designed to meet the evolving needs of the SAF.
Urban operations in dense cities are also increasingly likely for military and law enforcement forces as more and more of the world urbanises, with the United Nations predicting that almost 70 per cent of the global population will live in cities by the year 2050.
This means that cities will grow larger and denser, and militaries, emergency services and law enforcement forces will be more likely to engage in operations in dense urban settings even in non-combat situations.
Mike Yeo is a correspondent at The Straits Times, where he covers mainly defence issues.
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