The SCDF maintains a dedicated 79-member contingent on standby round-the-clock. Codenamed Operation Lionheart, the core function is to provide urban search and rescue and/or humanitarian relief assistance to countries afflicted by major disasters. The Operation Lionheart contingent comprises rescuers from the SCDF's elite Disaster Assistance & Rescue Team (DART) and from the frontline units including Operationally Ready National Service (ORNS) men. Our rescuers are equipped with specialised equipment like life detecting devices and lifting and cutting tools to aid them in such missions. DART is highly trained in urban search and rescue, height rescue, medical trauma incidents, water search and rescue, heli-bucket operations, to name a few. Besides rescuers, the contingent also consists of search dogs and technical experts such as civil engineers and doctors who specialise in trauma and emergency medicine.

Since the formation of this contingent in 1990, it had been deployed throughout the Asia-Pacific region to render humanitarian assistance to countries hit by major disasters.