DSO Marks 50 Years of Defence Science and Technology with the DSO50 Technology Showcase

One of the key events of DSO National Laboratories’ (DSO) Golden Jubilee, the closed-door event is the largest and most extensive technology showcase extended to guests from the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), key public agencies and industry partners.

19 July 2022 – Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen, visited the DSO50 Technology Showcase (TSC) at the DSO Complex today, as part of DSO’s 50^th anniversary celebrations. The TSC is a unique exhibition showcasing DSO’s history, capability built-up over the past five decades and future R&D endeavours for MINDEF, the SAF, and Whole-of-Government efforts.

The media was given a glimpse of DSO’s innovations in five key technology domains – Cryptography, Cybersecurity, Miniaturised Radio Frequency and Electronics, Artificial Intelligence / Data Analytics and Unmanned Systems. Many of these indigenous technologies and solutions solve important operational problems and are often not available commercially. They can also be customised for other unique and future operating requirements. Most of these enabling technologies are often invisible, and embedded within systems to make it smarter and more robust.

One key example is DSO’s efforts in the miniaturisation of critical electronic components that are smaller, lighter and yet provide higher performance in diverse communications platforms and systems. Another important highlight is DSO’s solution is detecting and overcoming adversarial AI that may provide misleading information using fake news and falsified media.

Speaking during the DSO50 TSC visit, Dr Ng acknowledged the importance of DSO’s role in defence for the past 50 years and for the future. He said, “I think it was the credit of our founding fathers and successive leaderships that recognised very early on, after the SAF was formed, that we had to have leading-edge technology. It was self-evident that we didn't have strategic depth. Singapore's very small in size and we have limited manpower. And that realisation came very early, that we had to set up this organisation. But I think even our founding fathers would have been quite impressed with how DSO has developed…  So I would expect DSO to continue to play that role, constantly helping the SAF achieve beyond what it's able to.”  

Dr Ng also highlighted the close collaboration and deep trust forged between DSO and the SAF. He said, “Behind the opening of this technology showcase has been 50 years of steady progress and good achievements, and I would say that after half a century, DSO is indispensable to the SAF… It is because of leveraging technology, science, manpower, and intellect that we've been able to overcome many, many vulnerabilities. Of course, our inherent vulnerabilities are immutable. That's never going to change. We’re never going to be large or have more manpower than necessary. So we’re thankful that we’ve reached this position with DSO.”

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About DSO National Laboratories

DSO National Laboratories (DSO) is Singapore’s national defence research and development organisation. For the past 5 decades, DSO has been undertaking indigenous development of advanced defence and weapon systems that provide the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) with the superior technological edge in the battlefield. While its primary focus is to support the SAF, DSO also extends its defence R&D capabilities to support homeland security.

With more than 1,600 research scientists and engineers, DSO investigates emerging technologies, matures promising ones and integrates them into innovative system concepts to meet Singapore’s defence and security needs. For more information, please visit www.dso.org.sg