SINGAPORE, Oct 18 — Changi Airport's emergency services team has added three news types of new sea rescue vessels to boost firefighting and search and rescue capabilities.

The new vessels — the Landing Craft, Command Craft and Fast Craft — which will replace older crafts that will reach their end of life by this year, were showcased in the airport's annual crisis simulation exercise yesterday, involving nearly 20 agencies and more than 200 participants.

According to Changi Airport Group (CAG) in a press release, each vessel has a uniform maximum speed of 40 knots, an increase from 20 knots for the first-generation vessels, which include hovercrafts and inflatable boats.

The vessels operate from a sea rescue base, located off the waters of Changi Airport, which is designed to handle aircraft crashes in the waters surrounding the airport and similar accidents out at sea.

The base is the only location where hovercrafts were operated in Singapore, reported Channel News Asia.

The new Landing Craft will replace CAG's Airport Emergency Service's (AES) current hovercraft, and will serve the same functions of firefighting and casualty management.

CAG's Airport Emergency Service (AES) team is in charge of handling crashes at the airport, firefighting, rescue operations, as well as other emergencies involving dangerous goods, bomb warnings, and chemical or biological threats.

The Landing Craft will be beached like a hovercraft and will have the same capacity of 50 passengers, said CAG.

The Command Craft meanwhile is designed to coordinate rescue efforts during emergencies. It has the same capacity as the current boat performing the same task — three crew members and 12 passengers — but has a better communication system.

There will be two Fast Crafts, which can carry out firefighting, water surface rescue efforts and transport casualties with vessel able to hold 19 passengers — almost twice as many compared to the rigid inflatable boat it is replacing.