Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Wife of 2M to launch Archer-class submarine

Ms Ivy Lim Swee Lian, the wife of Singapore's Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, is expected to launch the submarine, RSS Swordsman, in the port city of Karlskrona, Sweden, tomorrow (20 Oct'10).

The Singaporean Education minister is now is Sweden for a four-day official visit, according to a news release on the Singapore Ministry of Education website.


Ministry of Education, Singapore
October 16, 2010
Minister Ng Eng Hen to Visit Sweden

Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, will visit Sweden from 17 to 20 October 2010. He will meet Mr Jan Björklund, Swedish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, and sign an agreement to encourage further education collaborations between Sweden and Singapore. Dr Ng will also visit education institutions to learn more about educational developments in Sweden.

Dr Ng will be accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Education.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not that one who is going to court?

Anonymous said...

We need more of these damn boats!

Anonymous said...

Who names these vessels?! Swordsman?!?

FinalFive said...

There is a little story in the Artillery, an old story, about women and weapons. I was told this by an old encik involved in the development of the LWH, better known as the Pegasus amongst the gunners.

See you all know the Pegasus was one of those really difficult howitzers to develop. Specialised metals, designing of fold-up mechanisms, ground stability etc.

There was a female, and very senior, DSTA development exec supervising the Pegasus' final stages. When it came to the inaugural live firing (after all safety tests were done, etc), she had asked- here's where the story gets a bit hazy, no one I checked with can clarify whether she was invited or asked to be the firer of the inaugural round of the Pegasus.

Anyhow, when word got around the Army development team that it would be a female, the encik was disturbed. He said that any artilleryman will know that it is taboo for the weapon to be fired by a woman.

But who was going to tell the higher-ups that? It would be career suicide, and that was certainly not an option for any one in the team. So everyone just maintained their plastic face and watched.

She went up to the gunner's seat. The layer placed the round on the feed tray. She pulled the firing lever.

The Pegasus jammed.

I sure hope subs don't jam.

Anonymous said...

Women have been launching ships for the longest time. Lady Hood and HMS Hood... ho ho ho