Keynote Address by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen at the Defence Technology Prize Award Ceremony on 19 Oct 2023

Friends and Colleagues,

Senior Officials,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

Let me wish everyone here a good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. The annual Defence Technology Prize (DTP) ceremony is an important occasion that recognises the contributions of individuals and teams in the Defence Technology Community (DTC). The impact of their contributions, our scientists and engineers, I think is hard to overstate. Indeed, it would be fair to conclude that their contributions have helped the SAF to maintain its sharp edge in its capabilities that gives us the comparative advantages.

Without these breakthroughs from our defence scientists and engineers, Singapore's immutable and inherent disadvantages, and we know what they are – limited manpower and lack of strategic depth, would drag the SAF and our national defence down. Let me just give you one vivid example – demographic changes. Our National Service (NS) cohorts have been falling as compared to the numbers that came in the 1960s and 1970s when some of you here did your NS. But despite the falling cohorts, the SAF today has far greater capabilities in air, land, sea and digital domains. How is that possible with falling manpower? Yet service to service, platform to platform, unit to unit, we have greater power across all services, capabilities for better intelligence, manoeuvre, range and precision of platforms have all gone up, even as the number of soldiers to operate each unit has come down.

It is therefore no exaggeration to state that the modernised SAF of today has been propelled to the front ranks by the adoption of new technologies. While credit goes to the leaders and commanders of the SAF, this transformation would not have been possible without the close partnership with those in the DTC.

So, it is entirely apt and indeed necessary for us to honour these outstanding individuals and teams from the DTC for their invaluable contributions to Singapore's defence capabilities. I know that these few moments of recognition and applause cannot match the years of effort and for some of you, struggles to solve difficult challenges. We all know that breakthroughs require passion, resilience, innovative minds and sometimes sheer grit and doggedness, and that recognition and appreciation for your efforts today is important.

But I think the greatest satisfaction for our defence scientists and engineers is knowing that your efforts have made a difference and will protect Singapore for a very long time. Previous award winners were responsible to produce, for example, the Hunter Armoured Fighting Vehicle, the Singapore Army's first fully digitalised platform. That enhanced capability gives an edge for the Army for many years to come. Similarly, the VENUS unmanned surface vessel will assist our Navy to fulfil their mission in mine countermeasure and maritime security missions with far less manpower and reduced risks. For the Air Force, the smart Combat Management System ensures that our Air Force has comprehensive air intelligence round the clock.

Changing Nature of Modern Warfare, and the Implications of Technology Trends

But this iteration between new technology and disruption creates endless cycles. Because as soon as systems are mature and optimised using new technology, as sure as the sun will rise, along comes another newer technology that challenges current assumptions and status quo. If you look at the current Ukrainian conflict, there are no shortage of examples of this dilemma. And we have been studying it in close quarters trying to learn all the lessons, as we will also with the situation in Israel. At the very least, the experiences in Ukraine have revised air power doctrine. Drones – for example, often low-cost ones – will now be a standard orbat for militaries and even paramilitary groups, and will be used extensively in local battles. They have not yet been proven to be strategic but certainly can decide winners and losers in a tactical situation. The strategic implications from the situation in Israel overnight have changed so many calculations, and has made our world a more dangerous one. At the very least, we must anticipate that the risk of terrorist attacks in our region will go on. It was a tactical failure but with grave strategic implications. The same can happen with any other low-cost technology. For the DTC, the challenge is to produce countermeasures to mass drone attacks that are sustainable and will not deplete resources disproportionately. If it costs $50,000 to neutralise a $5,000 threat, the defender will ultimately lose in the war of attrition.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already begun in militaries around the World. The promise of AI is indeed great but in this evolving space, while there can be great gains in its application, there is also the risk that resources could be consumed chasing many rainbows. And so I treat this with some scepticism. We asked questions, and MINDEF and the SAF have decided that in order to avoid the situation where we chase many rainbows, that greater oversight is necessary to ensure proper matching of resources with outcomes in the application of AI. We want to encourage ground-up efforts but at the same time ensure that rigorous milestones are achieved with checklists and due processes, or that simply other more cost-effective solutions are used. Not everything needs AI, while some problems cannot be dealt adequately without AI. The wisdom is knowing which to apply, and when.

Unmanned platforms are also another given in the orbat of militaries today and will play a greater role in the near future, that is for certain. The recent Exercise Forging Sabre in the US allowed the SAF to trial its unmanned ground and aerial vehicles for surveillance and reconnaissance operations. Officers from the DTC facilitated the trials there by adapting and developing algorithms and C2 systems on these commercial platforms.

The Need for DTC to Stretch the Frontiers of Defence Science and Technology and Leverage Partnerships

This close partnership of trust and respect between the SAF and engineers and scientists within your community, I think augurs well for the development of the next generation SAF. Many of today's winners are indeed forward-looking and preparing the SAF for the future.

One award winner from the Advanced Imagery Management Systems Team integrated visual and data for the SAF to shorten its decision-making process. The programme developed can exploit data and form actionable insights autonomously. The SAF commanders will now have to convince themselves that these machine learning capabilities can be trusted and useful in battle. That is the final test – will your people trust it? As with kinetic platforms, the SAF and DTC must work together to advance these initiatives. This is the future we must all embrace. We may not get it right the first time but when we do, it will greatly enhance the SAF's fighting capabilities. Because there are limited resources, we must also be willing to prune when we find that a project does not yield returns. That is why you need to have discipline in your processes in terms of evaluating or developing new technologies.

Earlier on in my speech, I talked about how some of you within your community have struggled and laboured for decades to surmount defence challenges. The DSO Advanced Electronics Team is one such example. For almost 30 years, the DSO Advanced Electronics Team has persisted and now built up indigenous deep design and manufacturing capabilities in high-speed digital electronics and analogue mixed-signal electronics. These are crucial so that we can ourselves produce miniaturised and energy-efficient solutions for surveillance and communications.

Partnerships for our DTC, both commercial and G-to-G are key enablers too to achieve breakthroughs. I think the science is moving too fast in AI, in unmanned platforms. If we stick to our defence community, we will miss opportunities. Our DTP engineering team award winner, the Invincible-Class Submarine Team worked closely with Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), and the Republic of Singapore Navy to optimise the capabilities so that the submarines can be operated in our environment. They have innovative features like the electric rudder drives and that improves how manoeuvrable our submarines are in our regional waters. Another example would be the Advanced Protective Building and Infrastructure Team. They partnered industry experts like Sembcorp and other specialists to build protective structures for the Air Force using novel design and construction approaches.

Recognising Our People as Our Greatest Asset

This year, we have two winners in the individual award category. First, Mr. Chan Su Wee from DSO National Laboratories. He spearheaded the design and development of electronic warfare systems for the SAF. The other is Professor Ng Geok Ing from Nanyang Technological University, whose expertise in Gallium Nitride technology, has already impacted the next generation of defence and commercial microelectronics.

I think there is a lot to celebrate over the years for your achievements. But while we celebrate the achievements of winners today, we should remain cognisant that it is the mothership of the DTC and the SAF partnership that has produced these advances. It is not a given that you will trust one another. It is not a given that you will incorporate each other's inputs in your design or implementation. We must do all we can to maintain these virtuous and intricate ecosystems – to attract and nurture talent for both, to deepen defence tech-ops collaboration including embedding each into the other, to maintain trust and respect through open communications and deepen understanding. And above all, to maintain that same sense of this critical mission to protect Singapore and secure our future. I say this knowing that in the next decade, the temperature and security tensions will go up. You cannot expect a war in Ukraine, rising US-China relations, and now the situation in the Middle East, not to impact us at the frontline of the security domain. Without security, there can be no progress and this is our ultimate and collective goal – to provide that security to Singapore and Singaporeans with a strong deterrence.

Conclusion

So let me congratulate all award recipients once again and urge you to continue to soldier on in achieving more breakthroughs for the SAF and for our national defence. Thank you.

More Resources

Defence Engineers and Scientists Honoured for Excellence and Innovation in Defence Technology

Fact Sheet: Defence Technology Prize 2023 Award Winners