Defence Technology Prize 2016 Team (Engineering) Award Winner

Island Air Defence Team

Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF)

Citation

The Island Air Defence (IAD) Team, comprising members from DSTA and the RSAF, designed and developed a first-of-its-kind, highly-capable networked island-wide air defence system. The IAD features key capabilities including robust networked sensors and weapons systems; smart decision support systems; and open and flexible interface standards that will change the way Singapore's air defence units overcome the limitations of physical space and manpower. The team also drove the development of system-of-systems (SoS) level methodologies in safety analysis, as well as verification and validation, establishing a blueprint for future developments. In recognition of the team's significant achievements, the IAD team is awarded the DTP 2016 Team Engineering Award.

Background

The team's expertise includes masterplanning, systems architecting, networked and advanced sensor and weapon systems engineering, software and systems engineering, building and network infrastructure, as well as cybersecurity.

Technical Innovation and Operational Impact

In delivering the IAD capability, the team developed a robust, resilient and evolvable networked systems architecture that is able to integrate various current and future sensors and weapons incrementally over time. These systems are integrated seamlessly to achieve a coordinated SoS capability, while being deployed across Singapore. It is the first time such a fully networked approach is being adopted for an air defence system, which is designed and developed indigenously to cater to the unique operational requirements of the SAF. The team's innovations include:

a.         Networked systems architecture with the Command and Control network

In integrating a suite of weapons and sensors to achieve centralised control and operations, the team designed and developed the Command and Control Network (C2N), enabling rapid and seamless dissemination of time-critical information to all parties within the entire air defence system.  The C2N allows multiple weapons and sensors to work together as an optimised pool of centralised resources in dealing with threats, ensuring continued capability even in the event that some of the assets become unavailable.

Smart decision support systems were also incorporated within the C2N to aid commanders in orchestrating entire air defence operations. These systems evaluate current situations and adjust plans in real time to assign the most appropriate weapon to achieve a high-success rate. These capabilities ensure the effectiveness of air defence operations, reducing manpower requirement and freeing capacity for personnel to focus on other critical issues. They also boost the responsiveness and robustness of the RSAF's air defence capabilities significantly. 

b.         Open and flexible interface standards

The system architecture of the IAD was designed with flexibility for adding new sensors and weapons in future. Interface standards for these sensors and weapons were defined based on open and internationally accepted standards. The team developed several new standards, which had no established norms previously. These standards achieved greater flexibility as the system need not rely on proprietary standards set by existing suppliers, and help to synergise integration efforts for various weapons and sensors.

c.         Establishing blueprints for system-of-systems level methodologies

Given the complexity of the IAD SoS, it was important to perform substantial verification and validation to ensure that it would function correctly in various operational scenarios. The team developed a robust methodology to verify and validate the performance of the SoS at various stages of its development. This methodology leveraged modelling and simulation technologies in combination with relevant hardware components to conduct comprehensive integrative testing. By adopting this methodology, the team was able to identify and resolve issues at the early phases of the project, hence minimising downstream risks in systems integration.

As independent systems in the SoS interact with one another to achieve mission objectives, unexpected emergent behavior can occur and lead to unintended safety consequences. While the process of safety hazard analysis for individual systems was well established, none had been developed for SoS-es. To realise the required complex safety assessment, the team harnessed their multi-disciplinary expertise to develop a robust Emergent Hazard Analysis methodology and a safety clearance approach that could be applied to SOS-es. Based on these new methodologies, the team was able to identify potential hazards, their causal factors, and develop appropriate mitigation measures.

Profile of Team Lead

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