Transcript of Doorstop Interview with Senior Minister of State For Defence Mr Zaqy Mohamad During Visit to Air Force Training Command

Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Today, despite COVID-19, the RSAF runs 24/7, all to defend our skies, and the AFTC is the foundation of all training for the RSAF to ensure that we have force generation. We have also adapted during the COVID-19 situation to ensure that training continues, and many of the developments you see today have helped us perform business continuity, as well as ensure that training remains at a tempo that we can sustain to ensure force generation. I think what is also important, from what we see here today, is that many of the innovations that we put in place enables us to perform at a high level, both by bringing best sourcing from around the world as well as bringing gamification and realism to the forefront. So while most times we tend to look at things from the very operational, very hardware-centric perspective, I think it is also important for us to recognise that some of our secret sauce is really the technological developments and Research and Development (R&D) capabilities to make sure that we are able to meet the specific unique requirements that Singapore needs. Some of these developments have also enabled us to engage our trainees better. You have seen that some of the developments and innovations that we have also come from the trainees themselves, so that is one thing I thought was really impressive here. It is not just about RSAF and R&D sourcing, but there is a bit of crowdsourcing from the trainees who are really a lot better off, and many of them are gamers too, who also introduced gamification in the simulators. So I think these are areas where you see a high level of professionalism and commitment from our servicemen and servicewomen, so that we can ensure that we continue to have a highly professional and world-class RSAF.

Question: SMS with the pandemic, how has it affected RSAF's training, and how do you think technology can help plug this gap?

Mr Mohamad: I think one of the advantages that the training centre has had was that the use of technology has enabled them to reconfigure training quite quickly. One thing for example – virtual training, they were able to frontload many of the coursework in the early days of the pandemic and subsequently move them to simulators. From what you have seen today, there is less need to do a real physical setup. Many of these trainings today are conducted at their own pace, at their own learning tempo as well, to enable them to learn hands-on but without having the need to be physically there. So many of these virtual trainings are also quite impressive because they are using commercial off-the-shelf technology, but customised to meet the RSAF's needs. At the same time you find the fingerprints of some of our NSFs, who are coders and gamers themselves who decided to add on modules because they found that some of these things could be gamified and training could be made more interesting. And in that phase, they are thinking of competition and leader boards so that they can make it more fun and realistic for our NS boys.

Question: I see, perhaps in the near future, down the road, what other technologies can we expect the RSAF to use to augment our training efforts?

Mr Mohamad: One of the things I was quite impressed with was the level of integration between the training school and the ops team out there – there is regular feedback between the teams in terms of what they use for training here and what could be used and adopted out there in operations. For example, the virtual reality simulators are based on actual experiences out there in ops but translated here for training. Another example of how applications can improve operations is the use of cameras and how you can consult specialists. There is this loop back that I think mutually reinforces the training centres and the ops teams which makes the RSAF a lot stronger in terms of being able to collaborate better and use technologies, especially with a professional team that understands how innovation and technology can be deployed to make us more effective and productive.

Question: We know that SAF as a whole has leveraged technology before COVID-19 happened. How did COVID-19 enhance or provide a platform for these technology to come into play?

Mr Mohamad: You know that with the pandemic, the need for virtual simulators really came to the fore a lot stronger than before. But at the same time after having gone through this process, there is greater recognition today that such simulators will become quite core because you can take training to a different level, off the current physical constraints to complement and put in new scenarios and add more rigour into your training. There are certain benefits that come on board when you can embrace technology and some of these platforms, and the good thing is that with more ideas coming in from trainees themselves and the ops team, there is a lot more scope to make them more realistic. For example, training using the Virtual Safety Behaviour Training learning tool, it is quite realistic if you experience it, you can almost feel the space that you are given within the site constraints and how you have to move around safely and be very mindful. You also learn about the implications of not fulfilling the full requirements, as opposed to just taking a textbook approach to learning, and you can see the impact to your actions. For example, when you miss pulling out the landing gear safety pin of the aircraft during the aircraft maintenance simulator, you see that the plane will lose balance and it highlights the implications to safety. These are important lessons that can be further extended to more applications in the future. I was also impressed with how the instructor could view your work through the camera lens. I thought that could also be extended to operations in terms of having a smaller specialist team, where you can have more trainees out there in the field who may not be as specialised but being coached by specialists, so that you can also enhance their capabilities. We see a variety of applications that we believe can be extended, and how the RSAF's training could be enhanced through the use of technology and injecting realism and gamification.

More Resources

The RSAF Leverages Technology and Trains Safely and Effectively for Singapore's Defence: Senior Minister of State for Defence

Fact Sheet: The RSAF Leverages Technology for Enhanced Foundational Training amidst COVID-19