Singapore on Friday commissioned its first underground arms storage facility, the world's most modern one of its kind.
Located at the old Mandai quarry, the Underground Ammunition Facility (UAF) is also the first large-scale underground containerized facility to be designed and developed within a densely developed and urbanized area, the Defense Ministry said ina statement.
At the commissioning of the Facility, Singapore's Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean highlighted its efficient land use and space management.
By building the facility below ground, it freed up about 300 hectares of land, equivalent to 400 football fields.
The storage needs 20 percent less manpower to operate than an conventional above-ground one because it is equipped with the latest ammunition storage technology and systems.
It also needs half the energy for cooling due to the natural insulation provided by granite caverns.
The defense minister also called it an "engineering achievement" which has set new standards in underground storage, safety and efficiency.
The high-tech facility serves as a one-stop operations center for storage and supply of ammunition in the Singapore Armed Forces(SAF).
SAF personnel can now move more ammunition to the troops in a much shorter time, and in the exact configuration required for a particular mission as the ammunition loads are stored in ready-to-move standard containers.
Mechanized for easy retrieval and processing, these containers can be easily loaded onto even commercial trailers which can be driven straight to the field and given out immediately to the troops.
Source: Xinhua
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