On Thursday 17th December 2009, the Cope Tiger 2010 Exercise was opened in Singapore by Air Chief Marshal Anavil Piromrat, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Royal Thai Air Force, Major General Ng Chee Meng, Chief of Air Force of Singapore and Air Marshal Herbert Carlisle, Commander of  U.S. 13th Air Force.   The opening ceremony was preceded by the Final Coordination Conference attended by senior officers of Thailand, Singapore and the United States.

Cope Tiger is a multilateral air exercise that is held annually. It helps improve combined readiness and interoperability while cultivating common bonds and goodwill between the three participating countries.
This year’s exercise will take place in Thailand in March 2010 and will include approximately 80 aircraft, 35 air defense units, and 1034 sorties composed of Air Force and Army members from Thailand, Singapore and the United States.

In addition to the flying portion of the exercise, Cope Tiger also includes a two-phase humanitarian and civic assistance portion. In the first phase, exercise participants will donate school supplies, sports equipment and other supplies to local schools.  During the second phase joint teams of medical, optometry and dental personnel from the U.S. Air Force, Royal Thai Air Force and Republic of Singapore Air Force will provide care to more than 2,000 people in Thailand.