Stealth warship docks at VivoCity

Stealth warship docks at VivoCity

A stealth frigate from the Singapore navy will be among the exhibits that the public will get to come up close and personal with at the Navy@Vivo event, which begins today.

The RSS Tenacious and its on- board Sikorsky S-70B naval helicopter will be docked at the VivoCity Promenade. The warship was one of the Republic of Singapore Navy's (RSN's) vessels which took part in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden in 2014, as well as multilateral naval exercises in Australia last year.

About 12,500 members of the public are expected to board the Formidable-class stealth frigate during the four-day event. They will be taken on a tour of the 3,200-ton ship, and will be shown its missile deck, flight deck, bridge and living quarters.

The theme of the event at VivoCity is "Maritime Force for a Maritime Nation".

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Displays at the exhibition will include a replica of a submarine's control room and the crew's living quarters. There will also be opportunities for members of the public to fire a computer simulation of the guns on the RSN's new Littoral Mission Vessels, which will become operational for maritime security patrols next year.

Online balloting for tickets to tour the RSS Tenacious has closed, but Navy@Vivo's chairman, Military Expert (ME) 7 Andy Tay, said that they will be doing on-site balloting to allow members of the public to board based on the ship's carrying capacity.

"We had requests for more than 40,000 tickets, and we've set aside a good number of tickets for two-hourly ballots for on-site visitors,"said ME7 Tay.

He also emphasised the navy's ongoing role in defending Singapore's interests on the seas.

"We want visitors to be cognisant of the fact that we are a maritime nation and that the navy is that maritime force that plays a pivotal role in ensuring the safety of our maritime nation."

As part of the RSN's outreach efforts, 29 beneficiaries from the Children's Cancer Foundation and Chen Su Lan Methodist Children's Home were invited to sail on the RSS Tenacious as it made the trip from Changi Naval Base to the VivoCity Promenade yesterday.

Muhd Faisal Abdul Kader, 19, a beneficiary of the Children's Cancer Foundation, said: "I am lucky and proud to be able to ride on the ship. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to ride on a warship."

This is the fifth time a ship has docked at VivoCity for the Navy@ Vivo event.

The exhibition in VivoCity will be from 10am to 10pm every day till it ends on Sunday. Ship visits are from 9am to 9pm.

This article was first published on June 23, 2016.
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