The Singaporean troops will stay in Afghanistan until the end of 2011 supporting ISAF operations in the country. The deployments were supposed to have ended by April 2011 But Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean announced their mission will be extended. Since 2007 Singapore has deployed several military teams to Afghanistan, providing medical assistance, training and reconnaissance and surveillance in support of the International Security Afghanistan Force (ISAF).
Sixteen servicemen from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are likely to remain stationed there to teach Afghan soldiers to fire artillery guns and take part in coalition operations involving pilotless surveillance planes. Singapore also operates a 52-man Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) detachment operating four Singaporean IAI/Malat Searcher II UAVs are operated from Tarin Kowt, in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province. The Searchers were deployed here following the withdrawal of the Dutch contingent operating Aerostars UAVs leased from the Israeli company Aeronautics.
Prior to the Singaporean mission Spanish forces also operated Searchers from Herat in Western Afghanistan.
