SINGAPORE – The days of cutting-edge technology being traced back to government-backed research are numbered, as research and development by commercial enterprises outstrip that of the public sector in the vast majority of developed countries, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said.
That is why it is in the interest of countries and militaries to work closely with companies to ensure that new technologies contribute to collective security instead of undermining it, said Mr Wong, speaking to participants at the fourth Singapore Defence Technology Summit at Shangri-La Hotel on Thursday.
Organised by the Defence Science and Technology Agency, the event, held from Wednesday to Friday, gathers technology leaders from around the world to examine emerging technology trends and issues of the day in the defence and security landscape.
DPM Wong, who is also Finance Minister, pointed out that some commercial offerings today are already superior to existing traditional and bespoke defence solutions, such as in the fields of 5G and low-earth orbit satellites for faster and more reliable battlefield communications.
Another area is commercial cloud computing infrastructure, which allows militaries to store and process large quantities of data securely.
“In a sign of our changing times, the Israeli Defence Force is moving some of its data from their own self-developed private cloud to one provided by Amazon Web Services and Google,” DPM Wong noted.
Beyond the digital domain, commercial technologies will almost certainly play a larger role in the delivery of lethal force as well, said Mr Wong. An example of this is how the Ukrainian military has repurposed off-the-shelf drones meant for hobbyist aerial photography to attack Russian tanks with bombs.
“All these have blurred the lines separating traditional notions of civilian and military technologies and expanded the types of technologies that are ‘dual-use,’” said the DPM. “And this has serious implications for defence establishments all over the world.”
To adapt to this reality, the authorities need to step in to guide the development and application of nascent technologies, he said.
This is not a new role for governments, said Mr Wong, who cited the way governments had collectively developed international protocols so that nuclear technology that was originally developed for military use could be harnessed for civilian energy generation without falling into the hands of bad actors.
