Speech by Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen, at the MINDEF Innovation Symposium

Permanent Secretary for Defence, Mr Chan Heng Kee,

Chief of Defence Force, LG Melvyn Ong,

Distinguished guests,

Senior Commanders,

Ladies and gentlemen,

For those here physically, and as well as those who joined us over the web, this is an unusual sight. But I am glad that we can meet like this, despite the pandemic, and more so that there are recipients for these awards. I think the fact that we are meeting and that there are award recipients reflects a good resilience among our own people – a resilience that has been cultivated within MINDEF and SAF, an ethos that places national defence as a priority whatever the circumstances, that there's this drive for innovation and excellence, and to find better ways of doing things to improve outcomes. So, I think today's recipients embody this spirit and are to be congratulated for their achievements, especially during this difficult period with many imposed restrictions.

Innovating Amidst COVID-19

Indeed, when you look back over the last year or so, whether it's among today's award winners or amid day-to-day functions, we witness that innovation drive to improve processes and effectiveness. And I say that it reflects an ethos because for people to want to improve things, it means that they are engaged. If they are not, then that process doesn't even start because the whole process of innovation starts with problem recognition. That you come to work, and you say "Actually, this is not the ideal state of affairs, it can be improved". And by that definition, there will always be room for innovation. You know the old saying – if you find a perfect organisation, don't join it, because the moment you join it, you make it imperfect. At any organisation, at any time, there will always be better ways of doing it, and you start with problem recognition but it is driven by internal motivation to solve these problems efficiently, if not more effectively. Let me give some examples. Early in this pandemic, our engineers and scientists at DSO National Laboratories were quick to optimise the PCR testing – you all know it as Polymerase Chain Reaction. Nobody compelled them to – that's part of DSO's wider remit – but if they didn't come out with an optimised test, I don't think anybody would have asked questions. And that in-house capability to be able to test provided the SAF the means to detect infection in its ranks as well as add to the national capacity. And it's a capability that enabled us to plan and to execute cohorting, testing, calling back our NSmen or getting our critical units to continue their operations. It is a key asset that has kept our infection rates within the SAF down because it was developed early, and is an in-house capability. When the RSN's RSS Supreme – first of all they decided to participate in RIMPAC last year, but the planning norms was that they had to do it out at sea: from here sailing to RIMPAC, participating, coming back. And part of that mission was to remain infection-free. And all sorts of scenarios come out – what happens if someone gets infected? Well yes, you do a test, you depart from Singapore, and you may even have an incubation period of two weeks before you depart, but things can happen and if one gets infected – either on the way there or on the way back – what do you do? And how do you know, out at sea, who is infected? So, the RSN reconfigured their ship to have their own testing capability on the ship, isolation and quarantine rooms, as well as specialised medical facilities. Because if you have a sick case out at sea, you need an ICU, you may need ventilation. And that was the reason that they were able to participate in RIMPAC. Thankfully there was no case of infection, but I think those changes, those facilities onboard – new facilities onboard – gave them the confidence to be able to embark on this. Similar protocols have been implemented for all ships as part of deployment preparations.

Let me give you another example, this one from the Army and the Air Force. Remember the Circuit Breaker last year? Our coders from the Army and the Air Force worked with counterparts from the MOH on a software to reduce the time taken to identify and quarantine a close contact by more than 50%, reducing the time now to detect further infections. So if you look at how long, for example, it took us to detect the close contacts, and if you want to stop infection, you have to quickly find those close contacts, quarantine them so that they don't propagate another wave, right. And previously, the average time from an index case to finding close contacts was about, I think, five to seven days, I can't remember exactly. But it's come down to about three or four days, and it makes a difference – it makes a difference of one generation of transmissions. Nobody asked the coders from the Army and Air Force to do this, helping in contact tracing, but it's that innovative drive to say "I can do things better, I can use my skills to add to the solution" that motivates them. It was also this innovative quest that drove DSTA staff to build better command and control systems. Because if you cast your mind back to when there was an outbreak in a migrant workers' dorm, they never had a C2 system – who wanted to know where all the migrant workers were at any one point of time, whether in or outside the dorm? And if you asked your contractors, they'll look at you and say "they're somewhere, but don't ask me exactly where they are". And systems of checking within worksites of making sure when they had their last swab, or whether their swab was positive or negative. All these aspects needed to be brought within a command and control structure, and DSTA produced that. And that was what helped us to control the outbreaks in the migrant workers, because ultimately it is a logistical challenge.

Within the SAF, digital innovations like the ArmyDeclare app reduce the need for person-to-person contact as well as facilitated records of visitors into Army camps. We want to reduce the number of personal contacts, but how do you manage the security risks? So this app helped it. It was developed within the first month of COVID-19. There was another innovation, called the Automated Trigger Thermometer, which obviously sounded an alarm when the temperature was beyond a certain range.

These examples tell us that year in year out that we have conducted the Enhanced Innovation Programme, previously called PRIDE, Productivity and Innovation in Daily Efforts, has had a permeating effect beyond the participating teams each year. And amidst COVID-19, our organisation saved more than $165 million through various innovation projects last year.

Innovating in the Long Run

Among the winners today, I would like to highlight two in particular. All are meritorious, but I only have time to highlight two. First, the Participation Command from the RSAF which stood up a committee that fostered this innovative culture, and it generated more than 115 projects in the past year. The Combat Service Support Command built sandboxes, as you saw in the video, which allowed rapid prototyping labs so that new ideas could be tested quicker, and those that showed promise accelerated in their development.

Conclusion

All in, I think all of us – I'm stating the obvious when I say that this has been a difficult year, not only for our nation, but for the SAF and MINDEF. But I am glad that amidst these difficulties, MINDEF and SAF staff have kept their morale high, their commitment steadfast and continued to innovate to address challenges and problems. I think the way we responded to COVID-19 – even though some can argue it is not a core mission, but the way that we responded to it – I think that that ethos will stand us in good stead in times of crisis.

We will have to adjust to a new normal – the circumstances may change, the threats too, but the threats will continue. We have had many twists and turns – it's a delta variant now. You may reach epsilon, you may reach gamma, you may reach the full range of alphabets by the time we're done with this. And I think we have to wrap our minds, our spirits, our day-to-day functions around what it means to live with an endemic virus. I don't think in your lifetime, in mine, that we've ever had to deal with this kind of virus. And in that kind of environment what will hold us steady is steadfastness and commitment to our mission, clarity of focus, persistence in spirit and that resilience to say "I will innovate, I will get past this, and I will stand my ground".

So congratulations all of you, and we look forward to better years ahead. Thank you.

More Resources

MINDEF and the SAF Empower Personnel to Innovate and Boost the SAF's Transformative Edge

Fact Sheet: Innovation Symposium 2021