Singapore pursues advanced technology.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

To overcome limitations on the size of its armed forces, the Asian city-state of Singapore is exploiting cutting-edge technology by combining home-grown research and international collaboration.

While its high-stakes fighter replacement competition has been making headlines in the defense world, Singapore also has been quietly at work reshaping its armed forces to take advantage of advancements in technology.

In recent years, the threats to Singapore's security have grown more complex, according to a ministry of defense official. The Singapore armed forces have to contend with rising terrorism in the region and increased piracy, the official said.

The island-nation--with an ethnic Chinese majority--sits warily between its much larger neighbors with Muslim majorities Indonesia and Malaysia. Fearing that unrest in those two countries would spill over, die Singapore armed forces have put in place round-the-clock air, land and sea defenses to ensure the country's security.

As a result, Singapore has invested steadily over the years to build up its defenses. Up to six percent of its gross domestic product goes into defense. That amounts to roughly $4.8 billion each year, by far the largest defense spending in Southeast Asia, according to the Center for Defense Information.

Singapore is gearing up for two major replacement programs. The banner competition this year is the fighter replacement program, which has Western European and U.S. aerospace giants buzzing with expectation--would it be the Typhoon Eurofighter, the French Rafale or the U.S. F-15T? Singapore is expected to buy as many as 20 fighters at a program price tag of around $1 billion.

"The decision will be based on a detailed framework that looks at all aspects pertinent to our requirements, including operational performance, logistics supportability, total life cycle costs mid growth potential," said the official.

The other impending replacement is that of the Navy's missile gunboats, built a couple decades ago by Singapore Technologies Marine.

The missile gunboats were state-of-the-art naval strike-craft when acquired in the mid-1970s. As new technology became available, these boats underwent a number of upgrading programs in the 1980s and 1990s to increase their capability and sophistication.

The ministry also is looking to acquire naval helicopters to complement the new "Formidable" class frigates. Helicopters under evaluation include the Eurocopter AS532SC Cougar, the NH-90 and Sikorsky's S-70B Seahawk.

In the meantime, Singapore dedicates a significant chunk of its defense money to research and development. Five percent of the defense budget goes into research and development, according to the ministry.

The defense ministry, in recent months, set up a future systems directorate to take the lead in exploring how technology can be harnessed to develop innovative concepts.

"The ministry of defense considers dais effort so critical that we have set aside one percent of die defense budget for experimentation, over and above the four to five percent we set aside each year for research and development," said minister Rear Adm. Teo Chee Heart.

A newly created center for military experimentation already is conducting experiments in a virtual...