Parade and Ceremony Segment & Aerial Display
National Day Parade 2007 @ Marina Bay
9 August 2007
Singapore

Parade And Ceremony Segment & Aerial Display

A People’s Parade for NDP 2007

1. A key anchor of the National Day Parade (NDP), the Parade & Ceremony (P&C) segment is one where Singaporeans from all walks of life come together to march together to celebrate Singapore’s independence.

2. This year’s parade format also represents and highlights the importance of Total Defence in ensuring our nation’s independence and success.

3. To recognise the efforts and hard work put up by all parade participants, the President will, for the first time, inspect the whole parade in a new ceremonial vehicle. In previous NDPs, the President inspects only the Guard-of-Honour contingents.

4. The two new contingents this year are:

1. National Civil Defence Cadet Corps (to represent Psychological Defence),
2. SembCorp Marine, which is responsible for building the NDP 2007 floating platform (represents Economic Defence).

5. PUB - Singapore’s national water agency and manager of the Marina Reservoir to be ready in 2009 is also one of the Economic Defence contingents in NDP 2007.

6. In line with the commemoration of 40 Years of National Service (NS), this year’s Parade Commander is a National Serviceman Lieutenant-Colonel (NS) See Tow Pak Onn.

7. Chairman of NDP 2007 Parade & Ceremony Committee, Colonel Lim Kok Siong, said: “The P&C Segment is a meaningful part of the NDP where we celebrate our independence, where Singaporeans from all walks of life come together to march forward as one proud people, one nation, one Singapore.”

8. “It is more than a military-style parade,” he said. “It is a People’s Parade”.

Highlights of the parade

9. This year’s P&C segment, scheduled to begin at approximately 6.20pm, will last for approximately 55 minutes. It will feature the following:

1. The Supporting Contingents will make a simultaneous four-prong entry from four tunnels under the Seating Gallery, subsequently merge into a three-prong approach onto the Floating Platform.
2. The Military and Home Team contingents will execute a transformation to form the words “NDP 07” to showcase precision.
3. Traditional highlights such as the Presidential Inspection, 21-Gun Salute, Guard-of-Honour march-past and aerial display will continue to be featured in the parade. During the Presidential Inspection, the President S R Nathan will inspect all contingents on board a new ceremonial vehicle. The 21-Gun Salute will also be executed at the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort site, in full view of the spectators.

Parade Contingents

10. The 25 marching contingents this year are formed by organisations representing the five pillars of Total Defence, including the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the Singapore Police Force (SPF), the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Uniformed Youth Organisations (UYOs) from schools and the private sector.

11. The five pillars of Total Defence – Military, Civil, Economic, Social and Psychological - are represented by different contingents in the parade, to signify Singaporeans working together in different sectors to defend our homeland and secure our future.

12. About 2,320 participants are involved in this year’s parade.

Highlights of the RSAF Aerial Display

The aerial display will consist of two segments – the National Flag Fly-past and the Presidential Salute.

National Flag Fly-past

National Flag Fly-past, a traditional crowd favourite, will feature a Chinook helicopter carrying the 5400 sq ft (about 15 per cent bigger than a basketball court) State Flag, escorted by Apache helicopters. The fly-past will be synchronised with the singing of the National Anthem by spectators.

Presidential Salute and Bomb-Burst.

Following the National Anthem, three F-16 D Block 52+ Fighting Falcons in a “Victory” formation will perform a split-second precision and synchronised afterburner fly-past above the crowd at an ascending height from 500 to -1500 ft. This will be followed closely by five F-16 C fighter jets executing a visually spectacular bomb-burst as a salute to the President. To add colour to the aerial salute, the five F-16s will trail off with white smoke from the smoke pod that has been designed by the RSAF.

Apart from the aerial display, the Air Participation Committee will also be supporting the military free fall in the Talents Pool and Show segments, as well as in the Dynamic Defence Display. A total of 18 aircraft, 28 pilots and 13 aircrew will be involved in this year's NDP.

Please kindly log onto www.ndp.org.sg for more information.

Photography by Eugene Tang/SingaporeSights. All Rights reserved.