Keynote Address by Minister For Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen, at the 14th Asia Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, first let me add my warm welcome to the 14th Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers, or APPSMO. I am delighted that this meeting is held during our National Day Celebrations. Some of you can share in the festivities. We have been rehearsing quite hard over the last few weeks if you notice flags flying and fireworks. The full show is this coming National Day. The SAF has been happily responsible for organising this our National Day Parades every year and this is one task it hopes to do for many years to come. It is quite a special day for the country.

This year's theme for APPSMO is appropriate given the major events of the last decade. For military establishments, 9/11 ushered in at the turn of the century an era of complex security challenges. Terrorism on a global scale was followed by more transnational threats related to pandemics, piracy, food security, natural disasters, financial crises and cyber-attacks. I remember Secretary Gates sharing a light-hearted moment when then Secretary Rice was informed that there were attacks off the Gulf of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden and she asked an aide when was the last time the United States was involved in protecting against piracy and he said, "I think it was something in the 18th century". Globalisation too has affected the military domain. This explains why from our perspective, Singapore, a tiny nation, has had military personnel serving in Afghanistan and the Gulf of Aden for some time now, not just one rotation but a number of rotations. My Australian and New Zealand counterparts said that this is the longest campaign since the last fall. This was a scenario unimaginable for Singaporeans before. Such deployments of the SAF in remote places thousands of kilometres away, in unfamiliar terrain, and with complex mission requirements are stark illustrations of the heightened expectations placed upon "the military professional in the 21st century" - the theme for APPSMO this year.

Put simply, the new norm requires more from our military establishments. Rapid change and the ensuing ambiguity will challenge defence establishments as they seek to provide stability and security for their citizens. Security relationships forged in the post-WWII and Cold War era will be tested for their relevance as strategic shifts occur between different powers. The rise of China and India has focused attention on the Asia-Pacific region. According to one IMF projection, Asia's economy will account for more than 40 per cent of the global output by 2030. ASEAN with 600 million people and a combined GDP of US$1.2 trillion in 2010 is expected to grow to 740 million people and US$3 trillion in economy in 2030. The political, economic and cultural ramifications of a newly-empowered Asia are bound to impact existing security and economic relationships. While China is currently the largest trading partner of ASEAN and many regional countries, including Australia, Japan and South Korea, the United States remains the dominant resident security power in this region, and has further committed to rebalancing itself towards the Asia-Pacific. This was brought home by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's announcement at this year's Shangri-La Dialogue in Jun 2012 that by 2020, the US Navy's forces would be shifted to a 60-40 split from a 50-50 split between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.

As a new global order sets, we will have to respond to these pivotal changes to better allow countries to engage each other and build trust and confidence. We will need to enhance existing approaches and institutions, even create new ones to ensure the stability of the region and deal more effectively with a spectrum of threats ranging from HADR to defusing conflicts. These efforts will step up the tempo in defence diplomacy as military professionals like yourselves seek to understand specific issues as well as build up networks.

In addition to appreciating the changing dynamics of geopolitics, military professionals are also required to have a strong grasp, if not mastery of rapid technological advances that will impact doctrines and orbats. I am sure that you are seeing it too as what we are seeing in the SAF; our orbat literally changing every few years and I wager that your orbat in ten to twenty years will be very different from what it is today. Modern militaries will increasingly use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and precision artillery, enhanced by advanced network and info-comm technologies (ICT). We are already witnessing how accurate and timely information has increased commanders' situational awareness and shortened decision-making cycles to hit potential targets in seconds. I mentioned two big challenges. One, the dynamic geopolitics. Second, the impact of technological changes.

The third big challenge for defence establishments will come from resources for military spending. Faced with financial problems, the US, UK and Europe have had to reduce their defence budgets. The challenge for these countries is to find sustainable options while spending is down. In contrast, military expenditure in Asia has been on the rise. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), defence spending in Asia has increased by 72% from 2001 to 2011 over one decade, from US$177 billion to US$305 billion. It was six times' that of Europe's 12% in the same time period. So Asia faces a different type of challenge - to avoid an arms race and to reduce the potential for strategic miscalculations and misunderstandings even as they modernise.

The fourth challenge is demographic - from falling fertility rates to ageing populations. The impact of this will force militaries to look into sustainability, right-sizing, and shaping their force structures to meet their strategic needs in a more efficient and effective manner. Another pervasive change impacting populations comes from social media and how it can shape views and beliefs from diverse sources. Military establishments with traditional hierarchical structures will find this new environment increasingly challenging to put out its views to convince and mobilise its rank and file.

MINDEF and the SAF have been responding to the changes and challenges outlined above. First, in our region, we have sought to establish an open and inclusive regional security architecture that brings together all the stakeholders of the region so that we can facilitate cooperative efforts to tackle common challenges. For the ASEAN defence track, the establishment of the ADMM-Plus in 2010 was a significant milestone as it brought together the ten ASEAN countries as well as the 8 extra-regional partners, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States. 8 extra-regional countries and partners for open and constructive dialogue on a wide range of security issues. We have made further progress through the Experts' Working Groups, or EWGs in five areas - HADR, Maritime Security, Peacekeeping Operations, Counter-Terrorism and Military Medicine. We have held table-top and field-training exercises in 2012 and are planning for new ones in 2013. During the 6th ADMM in Phnom Penh in May 2012, the Defence Ministers unanimously agreed to conduct the first ever combined 18-nation ADMM-Plus HADR/MM exercise in Brunei next year. So next year in Brunei, we will have a full troop 18-nation combined exercise. This bold initiative will involve all 10 ASEAN countries and 8 "Plus" partners, and in the process, we hope to build greater understanding and strengthen comfort levels between the countries involved.

Apart from formal platforms, other fora - including Track 1.5 platforms and functional groupings - can also play a positive role. This meeting, APPSMO, is an excellent example of this kind of fora. We also have the annual Shangri-la Dialogue, or SLD, which recently brought together 29 ministerial-level delegates, as well as participants from 28 countries. Functional groupings such as the Malacca Strait Patrols (MSP) and the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) allow participating nations to address specific challenges and areas of mutual interest.

Increasingly, military establishments will be asked to respond to Operations Other Than War (OOTW) as seen in past HADR missions, including for Singapore, the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami and more recently, after Japan's triple disaster last year. In that disaster, the longstanding partnerships between US military and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces played a critical role. Then Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen commented that the success of Operation Tomodachi was only possible because "we [the US] know you [Japan], and you know us". Similarly, in the maritime domain, Combined Task Force 151 (CTF 151) has brought together various international navies to mount a coordinated operational response to deter and suppress piracy in the GOA.

We must also learn to use social media and new technologies to our advantage to fulfill mission objectives. Earlier I said that social media was a challenge and indeed it is but it can also present us opportunities. For example, San Diego State University started a project called X24. It is a simulation exercise utilising low-cost, off-the-shelf web tools and the basic aim is to use this technology which is available to provide real-time information for a simulated natural disaster. 12,500 people from 79 nations participated in the inaugural exercise in 2010. During the second and third exercises simulating scenarios in Europe and Mexico in 2011 and 2012 respectively, and this time not only was it just civilian but both military and non-military organisations, including the US European Command and the US Northern Command participated. It is a very interesting and novel way in this 21st century how we are using real time applications to meet collective challenges.

To connect to a younger, tech-savvy generation, MINDEF and the SAF implemented a new training system. So we have had a mini revolution in our training and pedagogy where we shifted to a more learner centric way of teaching our cadets and trainees. It emphasises self-direction and team learning, and uses modern learning tools such as portable devices and interactive 'apps'. You have apps on rifle cleaning, you have apps on shooting, you have apps on almost anything now and the young are very savvy. They create their own apps. Recently I went to one of the units and they showed me a camera which is commercially available and it is a popular cam used for extreme sports. It is very small. My son had brought it in the recent diving trip and we used it. I was just chasing fish and recording it then playing it back. It is a cheap thrill but our training institutions brought those little web cams used in extreme sports, mounted it on helmets and put it on all the commanders. So in every exercise, it is played back in different perspectives so nobody can cheat anymore. You can't say that I shot you but you weren't there. They replay it and it is amazing how serious training got. I think we are on a cusp of some kind of revolution. In terms of learning, we are utilising these tools that the young are very used to and it is their ambient environment in our schools. We are also investing in simulation, web technology, in multimedia to infuse our training and more seriously our weapon systems so that it enhances our soldiers' experiential learning. Our budget in terms of simulation, I am talking about weapon systems and platforms have gone up. These efforts have allowed the SAF to free up time spent in classrooms for more time on training in the field.

It is clear that there are new demands placed on today's military professionals. They are expected to respond to changing external dynamics and rapid technological advances. Military professionals must be competent in a wide spectrum of missions which include peacekeeping, counter-insurgency and humanitarian assistance. They can be deployed at short notice to faraway places where they will have to navigate sensitive racial, religious and cultural practices. They are increasingly called upon to conduct defence diplomacy and interact with their counterparts. They will have to find new ways to connect with and train a younger and more educated generation.

These are significant challenges, and I have just brought up a few of them that you will have to address at this year's APPSMO. I wish all participants an engaging and fruitful week ahead. Thank you very much.

More Resources

• More expected from soldiers in today's security environment