Permanent Secretary for Defence,

Senior Commanders,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

INTRODUCTION

We have been doing this Innovation movement for more than 40 years, since it started in 1982. It reflected instincts of our founders that as a small population with limited resources, we have to do much more with less. And therefore, innovation was key to our survival as well as our progress. This year, as we do every year, we meet to recognise the efforts of those within our organisation who make us better, and I congratulate the award recipients.

HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY WITH AN INNOVATIVE MINDSET

Over the four decades, the SAF has been transformed. We have been faithful, we have been bold, and today the SAF is a modern military with a full suite of capabilities, whether in air, land, sea, or digital. Many of the platforms and weapon systems that you operate, are already the most advanced in their class, whether for battle tanks, armoured infantry, submarines, surface vessels, planes or C4I. The next iteration is really products which some have yet to show proof of concept. And therefore, we are already at the front edge when it comes to equipment. But as all of you know from your military training, this is a never-ending game because so too have the complexity and destructiveness of threats evolved.

Thus, I think we will always need that innovative spirit of the men and women in our organisation to make sure that our platforms and systems function and are optimised against different scenarios. Because when you design a system or a platform, you assume certain scenarios, and it is not possible for any planner or group of people to get it right all the time. We all know that, that is realistic. Rare is that platform or system that can perform up to mark for every situation. You only say that the platform or system can perform well in all scenarios if you''re a salesman. That''s when you market it and say "It can do everything. Do not worry." We must always assume something will go wrong, that either needs a quick innovative fix or is sub-optimal. You proceed to realise, "Well, it works in this scenario but it does not work quite well in that scenario". I mean, that is theoretical, but let me illustrate with real life examples.

Many of you remember that we were deployed in Afghanistan – it was 2009 and we sent Weapon Locating Radars (WLR). Because they were under real fire – Rockets Artillery Mortar (RAM), so we dutifully sent it over. The WLR was an advanced system. I am sure when we bought it, the salesman said to us that it can operate in all terrains. But when we sent it there, it was overheating and could not perform. Just imagine, we sent the WLR to tell you when there was an incoming missile and it was a real risk. I remember one of the papers, if it was not so dangerous it would be comical. Because it was not an anticipated risk first of all, and when it came, they had to harden their shelters. It was makeshift, because those camps were not designed to take incoming missiles. We and the Americans and the others co-located there hardened the buildings. However, they had to prioritise because they could not get the equipment to harden all buildings. When we contributed our WLR, we thought it was a significant resource, so at least you could get early warnings about incoming missiles and you can run for cover. But it did not work, it was overheating. So when that happened, our SAF men and women and those from other militaries basically had no early warning. The dusty and warm environment, coupled with poor airflow clogged the filters. That was the diagnosis – why was it overheating? Because it was dusty, warm and the airflow was not working. I can bet with you that when the AOR or AOP was submitted to purchase these systems, the brochures and specifications would not have stated "to be operated in dust-free and cool environments only". The WLR was supposed to be all terrain and yet time and again unexpected snafus are quite the norm in battle. With the real threat of incoming missiles, the SAF team there together with the DSTA engineers, had to innovate quickly because lives were at stake. The fears of real danger ignited their innovation and on the spot, they designed an ad-hoc add-on ventilation system from makeshift tubing, as well as external power generator and cooling unit customised to deal with the overheating. However ungainly it looks, it worked and the WLR functioned. Lives were saved.

More recently, at the height of COVID-19, the SAF was tasked with swabbing over 300,000 dormitory residents to separate the infected and stop the contagion. The concern however, was that in swabbing them, our own people would get affected because there is a real risk. The operators and swabbers had to be protected because the attrition itself from exposure would have severely curtailed SAF abilities. Strong protection coupled with efficient fast and accurate swabbing was needed. The team, which included DSTA and ST Engineering, came together with the vendor Biofactory to conceptualise and deploy the Mobile Swab Stations within just three weeks. They were modified from SAF''s cross country ambulances so that our medical personnel could conduct the swab tests on-site in a safe environment at the dormitories.

These two real-life examples underscore that this attitude of never accepting things as they are and overcoming obstacles that arise are crucial, not only to improve our day-to-day workings but indeed to win battles and wars. But that innovative spirit does not come by you sitting here listening to this, or participating in innovative symposiums every year. It does not. And it does not come when you need to in the heat of battle. If it is not a culture or way of life, when you have a SWOT analysis, it is a weakness. If you are too dependent on your platforms, the SAF has a weakness. I give you a positive example – the Ukrainian people.

Much has been said and yet so much to learn. If you as military tacticians and commanders are not studying the Ukrainian war carefully, it will be like financial analysts not studying their products or studying global financial crises or the credit swap defaults. You are not up to mark and you have not sharpened your skills. But one of the things that we have learned from this Ukraine war is how innovativeness is their secret sauce. Ukrainian soldiers and civilians never gave up against superior numbers. There was advanced technology, so-called, of the Russian military, but their frontline soldiers and civilians and engineers modified – you have read it, you have seen it – cheap hobby drones with grenades that could land on trenches and hatches of Russian tanks. The Ukrainian government used a crowd-sourcing chatbot which they integrated with one of the apps called the Diia app. This is a portal, it is like our Singpass portal, for their civilians. With this chatbot, they basically crowdsourced intelligence so that frontline villagers, elderly people who were IT-savvy, or with children who helped them, could report on the movement of Russian troops and tanks, allowing Ukraine to be a step ahead of the Russian military. They could have gone what we conventionally say C4I – leave it to the military, right? Put our sensors there and when our sensors do not work, well, we try to do it. But it takes an innovative mind to say, why not we crowdsource, because we have people in the frontline, and they can be our source of intelligence. Now that attitude, has to be I think ingrained, has to be nurtured, has to be practised. This is what you say to your children right, when you want them to be successful. You tell them you cannot just do book learning; you have to approach a problem with some innovation.

 So we have to keep this innovative spirit alive, and this is the core purpose of IGNITE. It is not just good to have but completely necessary for mission success.

FIRST LINE OF INNOVATION – EMPOWERING OUR PEOPLE

Now, MINDEF and SAF have a responsibility to promote this by producing a conducive environment and have in place programmes to empower our people so that they have the practical skillsets. It is one of the organisational responsibilities in Design Thinking to give them the innovation tools to improve their daily performance. So that when each of you, and the men and women you lead, there is an area that your work processes can be improved, instead of letting the idea lie fallow. You act on it, innovate it and actualise it. That is the big idea.

And I think this year''s Award Winners embody this spirit and goal. When commercial-off-the-shelf solutions could not fully meet their requirements, the Joint Intelligence Command, from the Digital and Intelligence Service, developed a software that automated the laborious task of marking exam sheets. They saved about 80% of man-effort and time. Another example - the RSAF''s 6 Air Engineering and Logistics Group designed a robotic inspection arm, called the SwiftEye. It inspects the fuel tanks of the Chinooks. Because of this, there is no need for maintenance crew to enter the fuel tank donned in their personnel protection suit, because the robots can do it instead. And it reduces the time taken from 24 man-hours to just one man-hour. This is not in the job description or specified job description of the maintenance, to go improve the systems. But if we do not have that, we are very much less than what we can be.

SECOND LINE OF INNOVATION – EXPANDING OUR INNOVATION COLLABORATION

Now, to grow this movement of innovation, Innovation Offices have been set up across all our four Services, and are networked with the rest of Government and commercial partners.

Let me give you one very good example which I think has made a difference. This was the Automated Make-Up Pay System. We have been having income training since the SAF started, but some bright spark decided "Look, make-up pay is always an issue. It takes time to submit, it takes time to pay. So why don''t we automate it?" Which is a great idea from the National Service Policy Department (NSPD), the Human Resources Shared Services Centre (HRSSC), and DSTA. They basically redesigned the system and smoothened the make-up pay claims process for more than 150,000 NSmen and 21,000 employers and this is their bold idea – let me just use CPF and government data and just assume that this is your salary. Sometimes you have to be smart and clever. More than 260,000 man-hours were saved annually. So, one question to ask is – why did we not think of this before?

The Innovation Offices will continue to build collaborative partnerships with other technology partners and start-ups so that our personnel in MINDEF/SAF can draw on these expanded resources.

THIRD LINE OF INNOVATION – SUSTAINING OUR INNOVATION THROUGH LEADERSHIP

Now, if you are a good senior commander or leader, you are tied into this. You motivate your chaps to lead the way.

In recognition of leaders who have done so, we recognise the Army''s Personnel Command (PERSCOM) for their improvements in enhancing HR processes across the SAF. To redesign the self-administered BMI to deploying robotic processes to replace manual processes, it has saved more than 5,000 hours and cost savings of S$140,000 a year. This is a difficult message to continue the momentum after 40 years. Keep doing to find new ways of enhancing it, to review it, to keep it alive, and to make sure it becomes our strength, not a weakness.

CONCLUSION

I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the award winners. Let us continue to drive and grow this momentum of innovation, to empower every individual and unit to push boundaries, drive purposeful change, and achieve mission success.

Thank you.