The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, a multirole aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air superiority fighter missions. The F-35 has three different models; one is the conventional takeoff and landing variant, the second is short takeoff and vertical-landing variant, and the third is a carrier-based variant.

The F-35 is descended from the X-35, the product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. Its development is being principally funded by the United States, with the United Kingdom, and other partner governments providing additional funding.[4] It is being designed and built by an aerospace industry team led by Lockheed Martin with Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems as major partners.[4] Demonstrator aircraft flew in 2000,[5] with the first flight on 15 DEC
An F-35 wind tunnel testing model in the Arnold Engineering Development Center's 16-foot transonic wind tunnel

The JSF program was created to replace various aircraft while keeping development, production, and operating costs down. This was pursued by building three variants of one aircraft, sharing 80% of their parts:

F-35A, conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant.
F-35B, short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant.
F-35C, carrier-based (CV) variant.

The F-35 is being designed to be the world's premier strike aircraft through 2040. It is intended that its close and long-range air-to-air capability will be second only to that of the F-22 Raptor.[7] Specifically the F-35’s requirements are that it be: four times more effective than legacy fighters in air-to-air combat, eight times more effective in air-to-ground battle combat, and three times more effective in reconnaissance and suppression of air defenses. These capabilities are to be achieved while still having significantly better range and require less logistics support than legacy aircraft.[8]

Origins and selection
The Joint Strike Fighter evolved out of several requirements for a common fighter to replace existing types. The actual JSF development contract was signed on 16 November 1996.
The contract for System Development and Demonstration (SDD) was awarded on 26 October 2001 to Lockheed Martin, whose X-35 beat the Boeing X-32. DoD officials and British Minister of Defence Procurement Lord Bach, said the X-35 consistently outperformed the X-32, although both met or exceeded requirements. The designation of the fighter as "F-35" came as a surprise to Lockheed, which had been referring to the aircraft in-house by the designation "F-24".[9]

Design phase

The F-35 was in danger of missing performance requirements in 2004 because it weighed too much — reportedly, by 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) or 8 percent. In response, Lockheed Martin added engine thrust and shed more than a ton by thinning the aircraft's skin; shrinking the weapons bay and vertical tails; rerouting some thrust from the roll-post outlets to the main nozzle; and redesigning the wing-mate joint, portions of the electrical system, and the portion of the aircraft immediately behind the cockpit.[10]

On 7 July 2006, the U.S. Air Force officially announced the name of the F-35: Lightning II,[11] in honor of Lockheed's World War II-era twin-prop P-38 Lightning[12] and the Cold War-era jet, the English Electric Lightning. English Electric Company's aircraft division was incorporated into BAC, a predecessor of F-35 partner BAE Systems. Other names previously listed as contenders were Kestrel, Phoenix, Piasa, Black Mamba and Spitfire II. Lightning II was also an early company name for the aircraft that became the F-22 Raptor.

Design

The F-35A being towed to its inauguration ceremony on 7 July 2006
The F-35 appears to be a smaller, slightly more conventional, one-engine sibling of the sleeker, two-engine F-22 Raptor, and indeed drew elements from it. The exhaust duct design was inspired by the General Dynamics Model 200, a 1972 VTOL aircraft designed for the Sea Control Ship.[13][verification needed] Lockheed teamed with the Yakovlev Design Bureau, developer of the Yakovlev Yak-141 "Freestyle", in the 1990s.[14][15] Stealth technology makes the aircraft difficult to detect as it approaches short-range tracking radar.
Some improvements over current-generation fighter aircraft are:
Durable, low-maintenance stealth technology;
Integrated avionics and sensor fusion that combine information from off- and onboard sensors to increase the pilot's situational awareness and improve identification and weapon delivery, and to relay information quickly to other command and control (C2) nodes;
High speed data networking including IEEE 1394b[16] and Fibre Channel.[17]

Cockpit
The F-35 features a full-panel-width "panoramic cockpit display (PCD)", with dimensions of 20 by 8 inches (50 by 20 centimeters).[18] A cockpit speech-recognition system (Direct Voice Input) is planned to improve the pilot's ability to operate the aircraft over the current-generation. The F-35 will be the first U.S. operational fixed-wing aircraft to use this system, although similar systems have been used in AV-8B and trialled in previous U.S. jets, particularly the F-16 VISTA.[19] In development the system has been integrated by Adacel Systems Inc with the speech recognition module supplied by SRI International.[20]
A helmet mounted display system (HMDS) will be fitted to all models of the F-35. While some fourth-generation fighters (such as the Swedish JAS 39 Gripen) have offered HMDS along with a head up display (HUD), this will be the first time in several decades that a front-line tactical jet fighter has been designed to not carry a HUD.[21]
The pilot flies the aircraft by means of a right-hand side-stick and left-hand throttle, both of which are supplied by BAE Systems.[22]
The Martin-Baker US16E ejection seat is used in all F-35 variants.[23] The US16E seat design balances major performance requirements, including safe terrain clearance limits, pilot load limits, and pilot size. It uses a twin-catapult system that is housed in side-rails.[24]

Sensors

EOTS under the nose of a mockup of the F-35.
The main sensor on board the F-35 is its AN/APG-81 AESA-radar, designed by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems.[25] It is augmented by the Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS) mounted under the nose of the aircraft, designed by Lockheed Martin and BAE.[26] Further electro-optical sensors are distributed over the aircraft as part of the AN/AAS-37 system which acts as missile warning system and can aid in navigation and night operations.

Engines
Two different jet engines are being developed for the F-35; the Pratt & Whitney F135 and the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136. The STOVL versions of both powerplants use the innovative Rolls-Royce LiftSystem, patented by Lockheed Martin and built by Rolls-Royce. This system is more like the Russian Yak-141 and German VJ 101D/E[27] than the preceding generation of STOVL designs, such as the Harrier Jump Jet.

The LiftSystem is composed of a lift fan, driveshaft, clutch, 2 roll posts and a "3 Bearing Swivel Module" (3BSM).[28] The 3BSM is a thrust vectoring nozzle which allows the main engine exhaust to be deflected downward at the tail of the aircraft. The lift fan near the front of the aircraft provides a counter-balancing thrust. Somewhat like a vertically mounted turboprop within the forward fuselage, the lift fan is powered by the engine's low-pressure (LP) turbine via a driveshaft and gearbox. Roll control during slow flight is achieved by diverting pressurized air from the LP turbine through wing mounted thrust nozzles called Roll Posts.[29]
The F-35B lift fan achieves the same 'flow multiplier' effect as the Harrier's huge, but supersonically impractical, main fan. Like lift engines, this added machinery is just deadweight during horizontal flight but provides a net increase in payload capacity during vertical flight. The cool exhaust of the fan also reduces the amount of hot, high-velocity air that is projected downward during vertical takeoff (which can damage runways and aircraft carrier decks). Though complicated and potentially risky, the lift system has been made to work to the satisfaction of DOD officials.

Armament

Weapons bay on a mock-up of the F-35.
The F-35 includes a GAU-22/A four-barrel 25 mm cannon.[30] The Cannon will be mounted internally with 180 rounds in the F-35A and fitted as an external pod with 220 rounds in the F-35B and F-35C.[31][32]

Internally (current planned weapons for integration), up to two air-to-air missiles and two air-to-ground weapons (up to two 2,000 lb bombs in A and C models; two 1,000 lb bombs in the B model) in the bomb bays.[33] These could be AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-132 ASRAAM, the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) — up to 2,000 lb (910 kg), the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) — a maximum of four in each bay, the Brimstone anti-armor missiles, Cluster Munitions (WCMD) and High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM).[citation needed] The MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile is currently being adapted to fit internally in the missile spots and may be integrated into the F-35. The UK had originally planned to put up to four AIM-132 ASRAAM internally but this has been changed to carry 2 internal and 2 external ASRAAMs.[34] It has also been stated by a Lockheed executive that the internal bay will eventually be modified to accept up to 6 AMRAAMs. [35]

At the expense of being more detectable by radar, many more missiles, bombs and fuel tanks can be attached on four wing pylons and two wingtip positions. The two wingtip pylons can only carry AIM-9X Sidewinders, while the AIM-120 AMRAAM, Storm Shadow, Joint Air to Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM) cruise missiles and 480 gallon fuel tanks can be carried in addition to the stores already integrated. An air-to-air load of eight AIM-120s and two AIM-9s is conceivable using internal and external weapons stations, as well as a configuration of six two thousand pound bombs, two AIM-120s and two AIM-9s.[33][36] With its payload capability, the F-35 can carry more air to air and air to ground weapons than legacy fighters it is to replace as well as the F-22 Raptor.[37

Armoured Fighting Vehicle- Singapore Bionix

The Bionix AFV (Armoured Fighting Vehicle) was commissioned by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in 1997. Designed and developed by Singapore Technologies Kinetics (formally ST Automotive), it is a medium-weight tracked vehicle weighing between twenty-two to twenty-eight tonnes. The Bionix was the replacement for the ageing M-113A2 armoured personnel carriers in the Singapore Army.
The Bionix has been succeeded by the Bionix II, which was "jointly developed by the Singapore Armed Forces, the Defence Science and Technology Agency, and Singapore Technologies Engineering".[2]

Production History and Development
Along with the growth and development of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) during the mid 80's, came a need to bolster (and eventually replace) the ageing fleet of M113 Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs). This prompted the Ministry of Defence to source for a fleet of armored vehicles to operate in tandem with the current fleet of AMX-13 SM1 light tanks.
With Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) being the systems acquisition house, and the participation of the SAF, DMO was appointed to conduct a technology study and recommend the direction ahead for this project. A market survey was conducted in which various armored vehicles including the Warrior Tracked Armoured Vehicle, the M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and the Schützenpanzer Marder were evaluated. The findings from the market survey showed that none of the off-the-shelf vehicles met the unique requirements of the SAF.
Therefore, the decision was made to develop the AFV locally. Local development was necessary not only because of a lack of suitable off-the-shelf designs, but also this would also serve as a good opportunity to build up the capability of the local defense industries.
Development of the Bionix began in 1988. It took several years before leaving the prototyping phase in 1995 and finally being commissioned in 26 March 1997.

Design
Engine
The Bionix is a compact design produced to meet the conditions of Pacific rim countries where small size is a great asset when it comes to travelling among rubber plantations and over roads and bridges not designed for heavy vehicles. The power provided by the 475 hp (354 kW) Detroit Diesel engine to drive its 23 tonnes, ensures the Bionix is able to overcome the most difficult terrain. Future upgrades in power ratings can be developed according to needs.
The integrated power pack is mounted to the right of the vehicle and can be removed from the Bionix as a complete unit in under 15 minutes. The engine is coupled to the General Dynamics Defense Systems HMPT-500EC fully hydro mechanical transmission, with the final drives being provided by David Brown Defence Systems.

Interior
The layout of the Bionix is conventional with the driver at the front left, the power pack situated at the front right and the turret in the center with the troop compartment at the rear. The driver enters via a roof hatch that opens to the left rear. When driving closed-down, observation is via three day periscopes, while the center periscope can be rapidly replaced by an image-intensification periscope for driving at night. The driver guides the vehicle using a small steering wheel rather than tillers and, as an automatic transmission is fitted, there are just two pedals - accelerator and brake. The instrument panel is mounted on the left, with the transmission selection box on the right.
The basic production models lacks an in-built NBC protection and air conditioning system, but can be fitted if/when needed.

Aiming
The gunner has a twin-control handles and a day/thermal sight, with a magnification of x8 and two fields of view (high and low), with stadias for the 25 mm cannon and 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun. The commander has an optical relay from the gunner's sight and a single control handle. The vehicle commander has a further five day periscopes to give observation to the turret front, left side and rear; the gunner has three periscopes (1 x M17 and 2 x L794D) to give observation to the right and rear. the gunner has the turret control box mounted to the right of his position and both turret-crew members have an adjustable seat. The communications equipment is installed in the turret bustle.

The AH-64 Apache is an all-weather day-night military attack helicopter with a four-bladed main and tail rotor and a crew of two pilots who sit in tandem. The main fixed armament is a 30 mm M230 Chain Gun under the aircraft's nose. It can also carry a mixture of AGM-114 Hellfire and Hydra 70 rocket pods on four hardpoints mounted on its stub-wing pylons. The AH-64 is the principal attack helicopter of the United States Army, and a successor to the AH-1 Cobra.
The Apache was designed by Hughes Helicopters in response to the Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program. McDonnell Douglas purchased Hughes Helicopters and continued the development of the AH-64 resulting in the AH-64D Apache Longbow which is currently produced by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. United States Army AH-64s have been in action in Panama, Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Speech : George Yeo on China pt3

How do we see China? I think to begin with, it's important not to try and, from an intellectual viewpoint, transpose our own experiences on to China, because I believe it will develop according to its own logic, according to its own DNA. It is growing now, it will continue to grow, it will develop its own contradictions and one day those contradictions, many years from now, will lead to its own decline. So they say at the beginning of a dynasty the taxes are light but the treasury is full, and at the end of a dynasty, the taxes are crushing but the treasury is empty. The important thing to realise about China is that some things are deeply resistant to change. Take Confucius. Every time they had to overturn a dynasty, they had to overturn Confucius, because Confucius justified the status quo. So throughout the 19th century, whether it was the Taiping Revolution, the Communist movement or Sun Yat Sen; they spent their lives debunking Confucius. It reached its final moment when they criticised Zhou Enlai together with Confucius- no- Lin Biao together with Confucius. That was the last paroxysm. Today, Hu Jingtao said [in Mandarin He Xie She Hui ], "harmonious society". Suddenly you hear the resonance of Confucius coming back. And everywhere in the world on the pattern of Alliance Francaise, the Goethe Institute, the USIA, they establish Confucius Institutes and the learning of the Confucianist classics are coming back with remarkable force in China, not yet in the state curriculum but just parents wanting to teach their children the Confucianist ditties. Now why is this important? From Mao to Deng to Jiang Zemin, at every stage, they re-interpreted Marx. They are comfortable with the young Marx, the idea of the superstructure on the economic base, the idea that politics is concentrated economics- that they like. But the class struggle, they downplay. They talk about the Three Represents, the progressive forces, the progressive elements, they nurture those. Now Hu Jingtao says "harmonious society", "peaceful re-emergence". This mindset has a certain attitude towards law, has a certain attitude towards religion, towards democracy and towards foreign policy and I would like to deal with each in turn.

Joseph Needham many years ago, I think in the 60's, the man who wrote The Science and Civilisation of China, that great encyclopedic work; he said its not that the Chinese have no legal tradition. In fact, by his estimation, the Chinese had a greater corpus of legal codification than the West. A greater corpus of legal codification than the West! Surprise, surprise. But the idea that the Emperor is below the law, that is completely alien to their thinking. Where did that idea come from? Well in the West, you may trace it back to Hammurabi, you may trace it back to Moses, to Greece, to Rome. But if you trace the evolution of that DNA, it goes back, way back, into its early beginnings. The Chinese had a very different evolutionary starting point. It was not in law, it was in an idea they call 'li' which is proper conduct among human beings. They believe, deep in their instincts, that law is only a means towards justice, and that when the outcome of law is perverse, then that law must be overridden, because justice, proper conduct, the proper relationship among human beings must take precedence. So from time to time when you hear about big corruption cases like the recent one involving Cheng [Liangyu], the Party Secretary of Shanghai, it is a big thing. And no doubt he will be made an example of, he'll be punished, the people around him, yes, then after that the trail ends. This will not be the New York State Prosecutor pursuing the legal case to its logical limit. They will ask themselves, now what do we want to do. This fellow has done wrong, he has to be punished and an example has to be made of him, but the larger system has to be protected. There are some who are involved indirectly, they need to be told off, maybe disciplined, but you do not want to upset the order of the universe. So their approach is a very different one, and they will produce laws in vast quantities, on contracts, bankruptcies, foreign investments, on this that and the other.

But when it comes to ultimate power, the Chinese Communist Party, the President of the Republic, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, they will never be subject to the law in mechanistic way. They are quite open about it. They say the judges, the judiciary, the State procurator, working under the leadership of the Communist Party, and they are expected to be members of the Communist Party and be imbued with its ideals and ideas. Will this change? I doubt it. Why would it not change? Because it is an idea which has served them for centuries. And to suddenly say that all that had happened in the previous dynasties, all that the earlier histories have summarised, are all wrong and that they should instead adopt something with its origins in Western Europe, which had as its crowning moment the crowning of Charlemagne by the Pope in the year 800; to them, what are you talking about? For the Chinese, laws are more like regulations, means towards a larger end. Their attitude towards democracy follows a parallel pattern.

Speech- George Yeo On China pt2

China and India in that comparison- China is not India. China has a very different sense of itself; its deep internal construction is very different. Superficially there are similarities, as there is between China and the US and China and Europe. But if you look into it's deep construction, it is very different. When we talk about China's future and China in the 21st century, how China will behave in a world community, China's attitudes towards democracy, towards law, towards social justice. It is important first to look into this deep construction because that is their nature. Naturally we should not be deterministic, there is nothing inevitable in human history, but when we understand its nature, it becomes easier to anticipate its moves and you'll be less suprised by its actions.

A few years ago, the Chinese government embarked on a major project which is its dynastic duty- to write the history of the Qing dynasty, the Manchus, from 1368 to 1644. Ever since the Han dynasty, roughly contemporaneous with the Roman Empire, they developed a historiographic tradition of each dynasty writing the history of the previous period. So Sima Qian of the Later Han wrote of the earlier Han and the entire period before that; then later on they wrote about the Later Han, Jin wrote up the Three Kingdoms; Ming wrote up the Yuan. The Yuan, which was Mongol in its origins wrote up the Sung. Sung wrote up the Tang dynasty which was the Classical Period. The last dynasty, the Qing, collapsed in the Republican Revolution of 1911; this is now 2007. I think in 2003, they embarked on this project, 'The Official History of the Qing dynasty'. When the former Vice Premier Li Lanqing was in Singapore recently, I asked him about it. He said "we told the scholars not to rush this project". I asked him how long it would take to write this history. He said it would take many years, easily 10 years. I said, "have you collected the material?" He said yes. I asked, "external sources?" He said yes, external sources too. All the countries, the Vatican, European countries, the whole lot; all assembled - 24 official histories, this would be the 26th. And Li’s instruction to them was not to be too quick to draw conclusions!

Now Mao Tze Tung was a revolutionary, he was a great revolutionary. He overturned everything before but he knew his history, he read the 24 histories, and not only did he read them, he annotated them. But he wrote with a terrible, illegible scrawl, so scholars had to decipher those scrawls. Then they wrote commentaries on his commentaries and now it's all published. It is very difficult for the Chinese to depart from their own history because it’s the same great plains, the same mountains more or less, the same neighbours more or less and they have seen the same patterns recur. So a long time ago during the Ming dynasty they wrote up the romantic period of the Three Kingdoms. The first line said: "Below heaven, great movements, great currents, long disunity leads to unity and long unity leads to disunity." So they accept as a part of their own deep nature that there are cycles in their civilisation; that they have ups and downs. In recent years, when you visit them, you could sense them feeling their own re-emergence, it’s a bit scary. In the initial years, they were lacking in confidence, they asked many questions, but now they know that there is an organic vitality. It is like an adolescent who watches his own development, and conscious of it. I say scary because for those of us who live on the periphery of that empire, what happens there will radiate its influence on us and eventually, to a greater or lesser degree envelope us.

The Singapore Assault Rifle 21 (SAR 21) Factsheet

The Singapore Assault Rifle 21 (SAR 21) is the latest assault rifle developed jointly by the Singapore Army, the Defence Technology Group, and the Chartered Industries of Singapore. The SAR 21 is a highly reliable and technologically advanced weapon. The new improved features of the SAR 21 are:
Shorter Length. The SAR 21 is a bull-pup designed weapon (i.e., the butt stock of the weapon is removed), making it about 20% shorter than the in-service M-16. The shorter length of the weapon makes it more suitable for the soldiers to move in confined spaces such as dense vegetation, windows, tunnels, inside armoured vehicles and helicopters.
Integrated 1.5x Optical Scope. The new SAR 21 comes with a built-in aiming scope with a 1.5 magnification. This allows the firer to detect and hit targets rapidly and accurately. With the integrated 1.5x scope, our soldiers no longer need to zero their rifles (the aligning of weapon sight to where the barrel is pointing at).
Laser Aiming Device (LAD). The SAR 21 also has a new feature called the LAD. It enables a soldier to fire quickly without aiming through the scope. The LAD enhances a soldier's combat survivability in the night and is highly effective for night combat and close combat in build-up areas.
Greater Control and Faster Recovery. The low recoil (the kick-back when a round is fired) of SAR 21 gives the soldier better control over the rifle and hence faster recovery between successive shots. This is critical in combat operations where the soldier must be ready to fire his weapon instinctively. The SAR 21 is designed to suit the build of the Singapore soldier. Its Technical Specifications are:
Length : 805mm
Calibre : 5.56 x 45mm
Barrel Length : 508mm
Sighting system : 1.5x Optical Scope Laser Aiming Device
Effective Range : 460m
Weight : 3.98 kg
Rate of fire : 450 - 650 rpm
Feed Device : 30 rounds Plastic Box Magazine

The Singapore Assault Rifle 21 (SAR 21)

The Singapore Assault Rifle 21 (SAR 21)
Adaption from Jane Magazine

Singapore has for many years equipped its military forces with M16A1 rifles manufactured under license by Chartered Industries of Singapore, now reorganized and renamed Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STKinetics) in keeping with the new directions undertaken by the company. The M16A1 was a satisfactory infantry rifle for many years, but licensing prohibitions limited Singapore's ability to market the rifle overseas and also restricted the types of rifles that could be produced. These restraints led to the introduction and production of indigenous designs such as the SAR-80 and SR-88. The SAR-80 and the SR-88 saw only limited service with Singapore's military, as they were intended primarily for export. In the 1990s the Singapore military was faced with a dilemma. The M16A1 rifles that formed the backbone of Singapore's military would reach the end of their effective service life around the turn of the century. The choice was to either upgrade the M16A1 or produce a new rifle. Singapore opted for the latter choice, but rather than produce a foreign design under license or use a foreign weapon designer, as was done with weapons such as the SAR-80 and Ultimax 100 light machine gun, STKinetics' management decided to develop a new rifle that would be an indigenous project from start to finish. This new rifle was intended to fully meet Singapore's 21st century military requirements and at the same time be viable in the highly competitive international small arms export market. The result of STKinetics' efforts is the SAR-21 assault rifle, now replacing Singapore's M16A1 rifles in the military forces.
Unique design Although the SAR-21 bears superficial resemblance to other bullpup assault rifles, such as the Steyr AUG and IMI Tavor, it is a unique design that is similar to its cousins only in that it is of bullpup configuration. There has been a plethora of bullpup rifle designs in recent years, starting with the Steyr AUG and continuing with weapons such as the British SA-80, the French FAMAS, the Chinese Type 95/97, the Israeli Tavor and the South African CR-21, not to mention the US' questionable Objective Individual Combat Weapon. The latter is actually a bullpup semi-automatic grenade launcher with a rifle as secondary weapon. Bullpup rifles have the advantage of minimizing a rifle's overall length by moving the receiver to the rear and integrating it and the buttstock into a single unit. This allows the use of a full-length barrel in a rifle with the overall external dimensions of a short-barreled carbine. The bullpup configuration is especially advantageous in close combat situations or when soldiers are mounted in vehicles where the design allows for convenient ingress/egress from vehicles and more effective tactical operations. The disadvantages of the bullpup design include the fact that the receiver is next to the shooter's face, which causes discomfort in the event of a ruptured cartridge or magazine explosion.

RSAF Rolls Out First F-15SG Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft

The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) rolled out its first F-15SG multi-role fighter aircraft at a ceremony on 3 Nov at St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The F-15SG roll-out marks yet another significant milestone in the transformation of the RSAF into a 3rd Generation Air Force.Equipped with state-of-the-art avionics and a sophisticated integrated sensor suite, the F-15SG is the most advanced variant of the F-15 aircraft built to date. With its ability to carry a large payload of weapons and fuel to give it increased firepower and combat endurance, the F-15SG will provide the 3rd Generation SAF with enhanced air defence and air superiority capabilities. The RSAF has acquired a total of 24 F-15SG aircraft. The first batch of F-15SG aircraft will be delivered to the RSAF's detachment at the Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, United States, next year. Chief of Air Force, Major-General Ng Chee Khern, officiated at the F-15SG roll-out ceremony, which was attended by Singapore and US representatives of the respective air forces and defence establishments.

Singapore Light-Weight Howitzer

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is conducting Exercise Thunder Warrior, an annual artillery training exercise, at the Waiouru Training Area in New Zealand from 12 to 24 January. This year's exercise will feature the inaugural live-firing of the Singapore Light-Weight Howitzer, codenamed Pegasus. The Pegasus was commissioned in Singapore on 28 October 2005 and is the world's first self-propelled and heli-portable 155mm lightweight howitzer.

British Defence Ministry Secures Warthog(Bronco) Deal, From Singapore(ST Kinetic)

Singapore Technologies Kinetics has secured a 150 million pound (about $233 million) deal with Britain to supply Bronco armored all-terrain vehicles to troops deployed in Afghanistan.

The contract was officially announced here by the Ministry of Defence Dec 18.


The urgent operational requirement will see just over 100 vehicles delivered starting the third quarter of next year with the bulk of the Broncos delivered in 2010.
Although it is effectively an off-the-shelf purchase the tracked, articulated vehicle being built for the British will include a number of modifications.
These include a hull redesign to significantly increase protection against mines and roadside bombs, longer range fuel tanks, weapon modifications, the inclusion of electronic counter measures equipment and other changes.
The first British-bound vehicle is due off the production line in Spring 2009 for testing prior to handing over to the customer. Thales UK will be STK's local partner responsible for final integration work and the provision of logistic support for Bronco.
The vehicles, to be delivered in troop carrier, ambulance, command and repair and recovery variants, will replace BAE Systems Vikings currently deployed by British forces in Afghanistan.
The Vikings will be returned to the UK for continuing service with the Royal Marines. Bronco, to be known as the Warthog in British service, will be used by the marines and the army in Afghanistan.
The Singaporian developed vehicle beat out an improved version of the Viking developed by BAE Hagglunds, the Swedish armored vehicle arm of Europe's biggest defense contractor.
In a statement released here STK said Bronco will "Give the UK MoD a significant increase in protection against roadside bombs and also deliver considerable increases in range, payload and internal capacity over incumbent [Viking] vehicles currently being used in Afghanistan.
It's the second British defense contract win by Singapore in little more than a year. In 2007 the Ministry of Defence acquired 40mm grenades from STK in a deal valued at Singapore $42.5 million.
UK MoD program manager Simon Cox said the Bronco had "exceeded our expectations in terms of quality, capability and performance. We are delighted with the product, attitude [of the company] and the progress jointly made in a very short time."
This is the first export of the Bronco although several hundred of the vehicles have been in service with the Singapore military since the start of the decade.

Inaugural NUS Seminar On Small And Medium Enterprises

Inaugural NUS Seminar On Small And Medium Enterprises
Speech by Professor Hang Chang Chieh, Deputy Chairman, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Chairman of GET-Up Initiative11 Nov 2003

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Growing Enterprises Through A Technology Upgrading Strategy1. IntroductionAs Singapore transforms itself into a knowledge-Based Economy (KBE), innovation and intellectual property creation will be critical success factors for Singapore enterprises to survive and thrive. This is especially important and urgent in the manufacturing sector as they face keen competition in the global market place. In the past, these enterprises could depend on the multinational companies (MNCs) which readily transferred the latest technologies to their key supporting industry partners anywhere in the world. This traditional source of technology transfer will diminish rapidly in many high-tech industrial sectors as the time-to-market and product life-cycles become shorter and shorter. The global manufacturing outsourcing practice in recent years has also resulted in much reduced in-house manufacturing expertise in many of the MNCs themselves. Singapore's supporting industrial companies which have indigenous technology and manufacturing knowhow will therefore become the preferred global partners of MNCs, be it in the global market place or even in the home countries of the MNCs.Another strategy for growth is for more local enterprises to create indigenous technologies and products/services that will successfully compete in the global industrial and consumer markets. If they continue to grow, some will establish themselves as MNCs with their roots and bases in Singapore. They will in turn leverage and tap technology and human resources elsewhere in the world to complement their R&D and manufacturing Headquarters back in Singapore.In order to accelerate the above development as part of our KBE strategies, Singapore has launched a multi-agency initiative, "Growing Enterprises with Technology Upgrade" or in short, "GET-Up" aimed at creating both immediate and long-term benefits for our growth-oriented Singapore Enterprises. GET-Up is a concerted effort of four government agencies, Agency for Science, Technology And Research (A*STAR), Economic Development Board (EDB), Standards, Productivity & Innovation Board Singapore (SPRING) and International Enterprise (IE) Singapore. It will pro-actively reach out to Singapore enterprises in the manufacturing sector and give them ready access to human capital, shared R&D resources and technology capabilities. This will help them achieve what Mr Philip Yeo, A*STAR chairman, called the real 3 Gs of "Grow, Glow and Globalise". Singapore Enterprises which have the ambition and potential to "grow" in business scope and size, "glow" profitably and gain global market presence will be actively encouraged and nurtured through the GET-Up initiative.In the following sections, I shall elaborate on the scope of GET-Up, the unique programmes championed under this initiative, and the progress made since the launch of GET-Up in January 2003.

Speech

Speech at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Transcript of Minister George Yeo's off-the-cuff speech at a dinner held by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP),1915 hrs, 5 February 2007, Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Thank you Kishore for your kind words. Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen. I was in India two weeks ago, had a good trip, spent nine days there. While in Calcutta after calling on the Chief Minister, I had a bit of time to look around so I attended a mass at Mother Theresa's house. Very interesting gathering; there was a Singapore nun there, she had been there for over ten years; Sister Maria Tony. I wondered why someone from Singapore would want to dedicate her life to picking up the dead and the dying in the back alleys of Calcutta and living that life. There were many nuns there who were in their ninth year. They take their first vow in the fifth year, renewable every year. In the tenth year they have to decide - final vows for eternity. So if you are not sure, please, there's a way out; if you are sure, then you're in the room. So the priest gave a very tough sermon and while he was talking, I could hear the din of traffic noise outside, in the streets of Calcutta. Then suddenly, I heard the call of the muezzin. Now this is a Hindu city. I told myself, I thought wow, what diversity in this country, India, and its ability to internalise this diversity and to find it unremarkable that the tiny woman from Albania should come into their midst, become one of them and then when she was beatified, was celebrated as an Indian, on the way to canonization.


China and India in that comparison- China is not India. China has a very different sense of itself; its deep internal construction is very different. Superficially there are similarities, as there is between China and the US and China and Europe. But if you look into it's deep construction, it is very different. When we talk about China's future and China in the 21st century, how China will behave in a world community, China's attitudes towards democracy, towards law, towards social justice. It is important first to look into this deep construction because that is their nature. Naturally we should not be deterministic, there is nothing inevitable in human history, but when we understand its nature, it becomes easier to anticipate its moves and you'll be less suprised by its actions.

Speech at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Speech at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Foreign Minister George Yeo’s speech at a dinner organised by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) on 5 February 2007

Foreign Minister George Yeo was the Guest of Honour at a dinner organised by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) on 5 February 2007 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The dinner was part of the programme for a workshop entitled “The Future of China: Global Perspectives and Strategic Lessons” which was co-sponsored by the LKYSPP and the Brookings Institution. The objective of the 5-6 February workshop held at LKYSPP was to bring together China specialists from the region with a team of international relations policy analysts from Europe and the United States. Participants included Prof. Wang Gangwu of the East Asia Institute at NUS, Prof. Kishore Mahbubani Dean of LKY SPP, Mdm Ton Nu Tinh Ninh of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Mr, Jusuf Wanandi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, Ivo Daalder and Philip Gordon from the Brookings Institution, Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform in London, Sylvie Kauffmann of Le Monde, Volker Perthes of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times and Walter Slocombe a former US Under-Secretary of Defence.

The workshop explored how the rise of China is viewed in our part of the world as compared to perceptions in Europe and the United States.

Below is a transcript of Minister Yeo’s speech which he gave off-the-cuff at the dinner.

Asia Review

Asia Review