Minister unveils SAF Centre for Military Experimentation
The Minister for Defence, Rear-Admiral (RADM) (NS) Teo Chee Hean, officiated at the opening of the SAF Centre for Military Experimentation (SCME) this afternoon. Housed with many new technologies and developments, the SCME is the one-stop centre for all SAF experiments. Through experimentation, the SAF can acquire new war-fighting knowledge, develop innovative operational concepts and doctrines to enhance mission planning.
Located at the heart of Stagmont Camp, the two-storey experimentation centre has three laboratories €“ the Command Post of the Future Lab, Battlelab and the C4I Lab. These laboratories provide users and engineers with an environment to explore, experiment and demonstrate technology capabilities for the SAF€™s future force.
The SAF, together with its technology partner, the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA), began planning for SCME in mid-2002 because it realised that in future, physical boundaries of air, land and sea would be made artificial by the increasing reach of weapons and sensors. Hence, SCME is an integrated effort between the SAF and DSTA where technologists work alongside military experimenters to transform Singapore€™s defence capabilities.
SCME undertakes a multi-year strategy, which will systematically build up a highly re-configurable command and control system. This also involves the integration of an indigenously built modelling and simulation engine to create a rich repository of re-usable models and exercise scenarios as new models are created to meet specific experimentation requirements. SCME is part of the continued emphasis of SAF to leverage on technology to enable force transformation. It marks another step in strategy of the Mindef/SAF in investing in continuous transformation of our defence capability. Transformation is a process that absorbs new technologies, concepts and capabilities into the SAF, to ensure that we stay ahead and maintain a strategic edge to overcome future complexities and challenges to our security.
The news release above was issued to the media by Mindef Public Affairs.