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Singapore to Invest S$45m A Year in Military Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

Singapore to Invest S$45m A Year in Military Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway © GovInsider

A starting seed grant of S$45 million a year will be given to two new laboratories in the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and DSO National Laboratories organisations, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said in Parliament on Friday (Mar 3).

“Modern militaries are powered by technology, and the next-generation SAF (Singapore Armed Forces), even more so,” he said. “Our defence technology organisations will gear up to support changes.”

To foster more experimentation and innovation, DSO will set up a robotics lab in April this year and DSTA will expand to include an analytics and artificial intelligence lab.

At the former, defence engineers will collaborate on prototyping, integration, simulation and testing of systems prior to field trials for the SAF. “The work on robotics has already begun,” said Dr Ng. “Six Singapore Infantry Regiment soldiers are currently experimenting with unmanned aerial and ground vehicles to perform missions. The Navy has gone further and is putting Unmanned Surface Vehicles which can navigate and avoid collisions autonomously into operations.”

Defence Minister Ng Eng Heng at the DSO's Clinical Diagnostic Services Laboratory to understand the lab's efforts in screening suspected Ebola samples. Image: Channel News Asia
Defence Minister Ng Eng Heng at the DSO's Clinical Diagnostic Services Laboratory to understand the lab's efforts in screening suspected Ebola samples. Image: Channel News Asia

 

“The SAF, working with the Ministry of Home Affairs, has already developed countermeasures to potential drone attacks. These systems were deployed in the last NDP (National Day Parade).”

DSTA’s new lab will exploit the real-time information that can be derived from the Internet of Things and platforms, said the minister.

“The realisable potential is enormous. For instance, our Singapore Maritime Crisis Centre monitors more than 1,500 commercial shipping vessels in our waters daily. It uses AI to generate unique signatures for each, through collating information from multiple sources, including social media. It then detects any deviations from this signature,” he explained.

“This AI-embedded method detected a possible ISIS supporter on board a tanker in 2015. That person was barred from disembarking in Singapore. Finding this needle in a big haystack is only possible through modern means.”

Singapore will also host an inaugural Defence Technology Summit in early 2018. Targeted as a biennial event, the summit will be organised by DSTA together with Singapore’s universities, A*STAR and Government agencies like GovTech, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, National Research Foundation and Singapore Economic Development Board.

Singapore Ministry of Defence (Mindef) is exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to combat future threats. Image: Gov.sg
Singapore Ministry of Defence (Mindef) is exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to combat future threats. Image: Gov.sg

 

“Singapore can lead in defence technology, even though we are small,” said Dr Ng. “The Summit will provide a global platform to invite leading figures and luminaries to come share their views, provide a window into the future, allow us the opportunity to network and increase our access to new ideas and innovation.”

In his speech, Dr Ng also revealed that Singapore has around 5,000 defence engineers and scientists, with the number of related scholarships and awards on offer due to be increased by 40 per cent - up to 170 from 120 today - by 2025. 


Source : Channel News Asia

Indah Gilang Pusparani

Indah is a researcher at Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Daerah Kota Cirebon (Regional Development Planning and Research Agency of Cirebon Municipality). She covers More international relations, tourism, and startups in Southeast Asia region and beyond. Indah graduated from MSc Development Administration and Planning from University College London, United Kingdom in 2015. She finished bachelor degree from International Relations from University of Indonesia in 2014, with two exchange programs in Political Science at National University of Singapore and New Media in Journalism at Ball State University, USA. She was awarded Diplomacy Award at Harvard World Model United Nations and named as Indonesian Gifted Researcher by Australian National University. She is Researcher at Regional Planning Board in Cirebon, West Java. She previously worked as Editor in Bening Communication, the Commonwealth Parliament Association UK, and diplomacy consulting firm Best Delegate LLC in USA. Less
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