Additional Mindef money will be spent on research and development to enable the armed forces to fight a high-tech war
By David Boey
IN A year when every other Government ministry suffered a 2 per cent cut in their budget caps, defence was spared.
And yesterday, Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean spelled out how the military will use its $8.62 billion to safeguard Singapore's interests and transform itself to fight a new kind of warfare, in which technology plays a paramount role.
In this, research and development is critical, with Mindef setting aside for the first time an additional 1 per cent of its budget, or an extra $86 million, to break new ground and explore the weapons, tactics and capabilities it would need for wars of the future.
This sum is on top of the regular 4 per cent to 5 per cent it budgets annually for research and development, which this time can amount to about $430 million.
While much of the research used to modernise the SAF is classified, 'some is in technologies one reads about on the war in Iraq,' Rear-Admiral (NS) Teo told Parliament during a debate on his ministry's budget, which is up 4.5 per cent from last year.
A selection of such cutting-edge technology will be on show later this year at a defence exhibition here, to demonstrate its importance in developing what RADM Teo called 'the third generation SAF'.
At the heart of this 3G SAF is the use of defence technology to deliver a deadly punch.
'Platforms, manned and unmanned, weapons and sensors that are fully networked into such a fighting system will have their combat power magnified many times.
'Tanks or ships or aircraft that are not, and which are capable of operating only in the conventional way, may find that they are merely targets,' said RADM Teo.
Responding to questions from more than 30 MPs, he also gave them an update on how SAF guards the country against threats like terrorism, how it stretches the defence dollar and the various ways in which it looks after the welfare of its servicemen.
To underline his point on the new direction in modern warfare, RADM Teo pointed to last year's Iraq war.
In it, just one precision-guided bomb was all that was needed to destroy a target, compared to the 9,000 bombs that had to be dropped during World War II.
In addition, a new-type of soldier is needed. He is Mindef's 'Advanced Combatman', a concept that envisions a heavily-armed soldier wearing a helmet with a visor that can display text or pictures.
He will also be equipped for night fighting. With a wrist-mounted computer, he can communicate with his commander and control unmanned vehicles fitted with cameras, to see beyond the next hill or street corner.
But amid all these new projects, RADM Teo assured MPs the military takes great care with every dollar spent.
This stringent approach has earned it a reputation as what Britain's Financial Times calls a 'reference customer', one of a handful of countries that stand out in the military world for its proper procurement process.
Earlier, MPs like Dr Ong Chit Chung (Jurong GRC), chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Ms Irene Ng (Tampines GRC) called for prudent spending.
Dr Ong said: 'We want the SAF to be a strong and mighty stallion guarding the gateway to Singapore. We don't want a runaway horse galloping away... allowing costs to escalate and spin out of control.'
In reply, RADM Teo described Mindef's various cost-saving measures.
He added: 'Ours is not a feast or famine approach. We do not splurge in good times nor do we leave ourselves exposed in difficult times.
'Defence is not an optional extra for Singapore - it is critical for a small state for which there will be no second chance if we lose the first battle.'