The National Day of Singapore is on 9th August and this year, the celebrations were held on the Padang. One of the star attractions in this year's parade is the mobile colunm or a drive past of armoured vehicles. This is to showcase the military hardware in the Singapore Armed Forces. 
During rehersals, some of the major roads in Downtown Singapore were closed and I took the opportunity to get up close to these vehicles. Leading the mobile colunm were the Leopard II Main Battle Tanks which SAF recently acquired as part of her arsenal.
The tanks formed up outside Suntec City and I could take a few nice good pictures of the tank. The prime armament of a tank is of course the main gun. The Leopard II tank has a fully stabilised 105 mm gun and it has a four-man crew. Driver, Gunner, Loader and Commander.
Being a former Tank Gunner (but not the Leopard II) myself, it was quite exciting to see these tanks up close . Brings back some memories when I was serving my NS in a tank company. Most exciting was the live firing exercise. From firing the main gun and coaxial machine gun to servicing the tank after that and getting greasy and oily. I can relate to the bitter sweetness of being a tank crew.
Any military hardware is a machine of war and using it means casualty and destruction. Hope that we don't get to deploy this on the front line and that we remember our history.
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