Speech by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen at the Defence Technology Prize Award Ceremony

Dr Tan Kim Siew, 
PS (DD),
Chief Defence Scientist,
CE DSTA, 
CEO DSO,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am of course very pleased to be with you this afternoon. It is a good occasion - once a year, you come out of your labs and your offices, and we recognise and pay tribute to the contributions and achievements of our defence researchers, scientists and engineers (RSEs). It allows us to reflect on what we have achieved, and even as we reward and recognise individual contributions, it also allows us to see as a whole how our community has moved ahead, especially our scientific and engineering community.

We talk about technology that is pervasive and I think especially in Singapore, all of us accept that technology is changing the way we live. I was talking to a bunch of young-ish SAF officers a week ago who are in their late twenties. From time to time I meet them, just to get views and make sure that the older ones do not lose touch with the younger ones. I asked them what their perspectives of people coming into the SAF were. I was very surprised that a lot of them said, "Well, he is in his late twenties and the ones coming in are in their early twenties, and there is a generational gap." So I looked at him, and said, "You are not that different in age." He said, "There is a difference." So I said, "What do you mean?" He said, “Well, social media." I looked at him and said, “But you have been in social media." But he reminded me that no, Facebook is only a couple of years old. His point was that the ones in their early twenties coming out of school, who grew up in a social media environment, are more socially connected than his generation, albeit only seven years older. So it is the way that technology changes our lives, and Singaporeans if anything, are devotees of a technologically-driven society. All of us see it in our homes and indeed, everywhere we travel. If you think about it, from the moment we wake up till the moment we sleep, technology is pervasive. How many of you here use an alarm clock to wake you up rather than a phone to wake you up? I used to use an alarm clock, but I found it less dependable than my phone because now with synchronisation with time, you can go anywhere and it synchronises the time to the place. So you do not really need an alarm clock and for those of you who are still using alarm clocks, you are probably dinosaurs. The truth is that is the way it is changing our lives. The moment we step out of our homes, the way we communicate, the way we receive messages and news. I am sure that less and less of you are reading the print edition of the newspaper every day. Because sometimes I wake up early and the newspapers are not yet delivered, so what do you do? I log on and read the news on my iPad. Even after you sleep, technology is still pervasive. What do I mean? I recently came across an app that monitors your sleep cycles. So with this app, you put your phone underneath your pillow, and the next morning you look and it tells you how deep or disruptive your sleep cycles are. This is just to assure you that you had good sleep the night before. It has not only affected the way we live as individuals, but it has transformed organisations and society at large. Whether it is inter-personal communications, business and government services, all are transacted predominantly in cyberspace.

So as a country, especially as a small nation with limited human resources, we decided that we would leverage on science and technology to amplify our strengths and mitigate our weaknesses. It is a continuous quest that we apply for the SAF and we invest considerable amounts constantly, not only in technology but more importantly, in people. People like you, high quality research scientists and engineers, over the past decades. Continuous investment. I say continuous investment because I know that the timeline or the gestation periods to achieve many of things that we want, many breakthroughs that we are looking for, will take longer and longer, as we are on the edge of scientific and engineering expertise. As Quek Tong Boon says, we can't ask others, "Can you teach me this technology?", because they themselves are looking for it and trying to develop it. I am happy to report that our constant investments have succeeded, and we now leverage on cutting-edge technology to produce strong defence capabilities that we have today. On the battlefield, for instance, the SAF uses advanced command and control systems that can assimilate the vast amounts of information from a wide network of sensors and surveillance systems. This crucial technology now provides our commanders with an up-to-date and common operational picture that reflects what is happening on the ground. As a result, our commanders can not only execute different operations, but also quickly reinforce each other as one SAF to act swiftly and decisively.

Many of you know that the Army recently operationalised our locally-produced TERREX Infantry Carrier Vehicle (TERREX ICV), which has an advanced Battlefield Management System (BMS). The TERREX ICV, on its own, has provided the Army with a quantum leap because it allows us greater survivability and ability to manoeuvre. But beyond this, the BMS networks the TERREX ICV with other fighting platforms such as our armoured vehicles, our attack helicopters and our fighter aircrafts as well as individual troops on the ground. Our defence RSEs have used this advanced technology that allows the SAF to seamlessly integrate our soldiers, our combat platforms, our weapons and our C4I systems into a single fighting entity that is even more responsive, precise and lethal than before.

Besides the TERREX ICV, the Navy's Victory-class upgraded missile corvettes also have a state-of-the-art Combat Management System (CMS) that networks sensors including the ScanEagle UAV and weapon systems. Now, our missile corvettes can see further and have better situational awareness to deal with a wider spectrum of threats.

This critical ability to incorporate the most appropriate advanced technology into different platforms within the SAF and then integrate them as one coherent and powerful system of systems depends crucially on having a core of engineering and scientific expertise within DSTA, DSO National Laboratories, the SAF and our defence industry. We draw expertise selectively from our defence industry as well as our academia and research institutes. I cannot underestimate how important this ecosystem is. I have been in MOE, where I have visited our academia, I have been in MOM, where I visited our industry, I am now in defence, and at the higher level you will recognise, or you will realise, how crucial and how rare this functional ecosystem is, because it is not always replicated in other countries. It is a fertile ground to test and apply new ideas and technological solutions. And this is the reason why we collaborate with our local universities to establish research centres and facilities, such as the Temasek Laboratories to conduct specific research in defence and security. Most recently, MINDEF established a centre, in collaboration with A*STAR and NUS, that focuses on cognitive science and neurotechnologies research, known as SiNAPSE.

To keep this scientific edge and to enable the SAF to meet its future security challenges, our defence scientists and engineers must continue to invent, innovate and keep up with technological advancements. They must understand the SAF's operational environment, our priorities, our concerns, and then come up with technological solutions to address these needs. Today's Defence Technology Prize Award Ceremony is an opportunity for us to do just that: to recognise people from our 5000-strong defence technology community who have made significant contributions in enhancing the SAF's operational capabilities. I am pleased to note that this year's winners come from diverse fields and this reflects the broad and deep expertise that we have developed in our defence technology community.

In the R&D category, this year's individual DTP award goes to Dr Loke Weng Keong from DSO for his invaluable contributions towards chemical defence. Recently, Dr Loke has also begun to pioneer our capabilities in the area of radiological defence. For the team prize, there are a total of four awards. The DTP Team Prize (R&D category) is awarded to the Army Tactical Network Development Team from DSO and the Army for delivering an advanced tactical networking system. As I mentioned earlier, their work has significantly improved wireless communication in the battlefield and enhanced the SAF's command and control systems during operations.

The other three winning teams are in the Engineering category. One is the Critical Infrastructure and System Vulnerability Assessment Team from DSO which has developed a capability that will enhance the survivability of critical military installations. This capability has proven to be very useful and has benefitted other ministries in Singapore as well. Another engineering team prize goes to the Integrated Geographic Information System Team from DSTA, DSO and the SAF for developing a command and control system that allows for seamless exchange of information across all three Services. The third award goes to the Guided System Team from DSO and DSTA. This team has provided us with advanced capabilities that cannot be obtained commercially and is an extra source of strength.

So as we use this occasion to reflect, to recognise individual contributions, I think more importantly apart from my personal heartiest congratulations to all the winners, I want to thank all of you for your excellent work. I want to express my gratitude to this community. I also want to emphasise to you how important this capability is, because we have strategic vulnerabilities - we will always be small. It is important for your community to commit yourselves. I know that there are days where you have technical problems and you are in need of much motivation. Just remember this, that this dogged pursuit sometimes flashes of inspiration, but at the end of the day, if you are committed to this, if you are resourceful with an innovative spirit, I think we will succeed as we have and sharpen our defence capabilities, and I look forward to your future contributions.

Thank you very much.

More Resources

• Defence Engineers and Scientists Honoured for Technological Innovation