Hits and misses explaining the Third Generation SAF

Combat pilots usually take centre stage during pre-flight briefings for a test flight involving a war plane.

On this occasion, it was a defence engineer who was the centre of attraction, ringed by a circle of the air force's high fliers as something new, something bold and hitherto untried was showcased.

As a constellation of stars, crabs and bars listened intently, the defence engineer explained how the black box would help get the Jet in and out of contested airspace safely.


It is a challenge explaining how precision this-and-that can sharpen the ability of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to achieve its mission, in peace or war.

Making people realise and appreciate the impact that precision information, precision manoeuvre and precision strike bring to the battlespace is important both for sustaining commitment to defence among Singaporeans and deterring the adventuresome from testing the system.

Such awareness-building is challenging. This is because sense-making is more difficult to demonstrate than, say for example, a straight off firepower display where guns bark or missiles fly.

When the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and SAF are determined to do so, it can achieve wonderful things.
    

The Jet, of course, was a war horse on the cusps of an ambitious upgrade that would give it a fresh lease of life.

You couldn't buy this gizmo off-the-shelf. It was home grown. Unique. Tailored for the Air Force's specific operational requirement that would see the Jet fly in to and out of airspace infested with unfriendly missiles.

Neither could curious eyes spot the device as it was embedded within the Jet. Yes, clever. But an engineering headache no less.

The usual option was to hang a similar device in a pod from a hardpoint. But the Air Force's Operations & Doctrine warfighters wanted to save every available hardpoint for extending the Jet's reach (fuel tanks) or hitting power (assorted munitions).

Some other way had to be found for its life insurance.


A good example was the media engagement during Exercise P in 2008 when the Singapore Army showcased its then-new Advanced Combatman System (ACMS) to the Singaporean media.

Time, effort, patience and, above all, trust (repeat: trust), went into the media engagement plan which helped defence writers get a better grasp of what ACMS was all about.

MINDEF/SAF could have simply pumped an acronym-laden fact sheet to media outlets and ticked off a box, having done what was expected.

But it went the extra mile by getting soldiers to demonstrate how wrist-mounted keypads could be used to send and receive messages, between sections in the infantry platoon and higher HQ. It showed the kind of messages that could be sent, like SMSes, and had full-time National Servicemen and regulars talk about their experiences "dialling a bomb". They took every question under the sun, answered with aplomb and confidence and their faith in their equipment was palpable.

 

The defence engineer proposed keeping the black boxes under the skin of the Jet. No protuberances or air scoops would be needed, he said, as these would disrupt airflow. Whether by accident or design, this resulted in a cosmetically implanted device, so cleanly inserted that it kept the basic lines and profile of the Jet.

In short: you wouldn't even know it was there.

Warfighters were intrigued.

But how, asked one, would you cool the thing?

It was an intelligent question that the defence engineer had anticipated. He let his audience soak up the question and ponder over it before stepping forward with a reply.

"Wax", came his laconic reply.

He scanned his audience and watched with satisfaction as the reply intrigued more than satisfied their curiosity. So he waited for the other shoe to drop.

"But how...?"

With a smile, with years of experience explaining hard to understand concepts in disarmingly simple terms, the engineer spoke like a teacher in front of class of eager beaver students.

"The wax will melt when the device is powered up. The melting cools the electronics." He couldn't resist, adding as a punchline, that a similar cooling device was used on NASA spacecraft.

"But will there be enough and where will the wax go?"

Trade secret. He knew and his audience knew the technicalities need not be explained in minute detail. A separate technical assessment team had put the idea through the proverbial washing machine, testing its technical viability and probing for possible flaws. None were found.

"By the time all the wax melts, your mission will be over."

It was as simple as that and the Project team went on to win a rather distinguished prize. It is this sort of narrative that has hoisted one's immeasurable respect for that particular Air Force that benefitted from such expertise. All this done and achieved quietly behind the scenes, out of sight but not out of mind.


The media engagement during Exercise P was an outstanding success.

Convinced, impressed, educated, it led to the realisation that a humble Singapore Army infantry section leader could, if necessity demanded, call upon everything the SAF could throw at the enemy.

This led to yours truly coining the evocative phrase that ACMS gave soldiers the firepower of the SAF in a backpack. MINDEF/SAF never indicated its reaction to the phrase. But the fact that then Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean used the same words at least twice signalled that the commentary had hit the sweet spot.

The time spent outfield during Exercise P wasn't the secret that helped the phrase "firepower of the SAF in a backpack" bubble into one's stream of consciousness. It was a by-product of the winning partnership between newsmaker (MINDEF/SAF) and reporters as they navigated in new, uncharted territory heralded by the introduction of ACMS. It would not be business-as-usual for networked infantry and we all realised the dawn of a new paradigm.

It was the trust engendered between newsmaker and reporters, the open and frank conversations that proved to be the winning formula.

In the years since 2008, much of the narrative on the Third Generation SAF has been anchored on more or less on the same phrases that are sounding clichéd: sense-making, firepower, arsenal, find-fix-and-finish, knockout blow.

The defence reporting scene here has yet to lift itself to the next level, a higher plane of discussion of the 3G transformation as our fighting forces continue to evolve.

XFS provided a ripe opportunity to level up. But that chance came and went and we failed to capitalise on it.