Overseas collaboration
Singapore has built up a strong capability to defend our population against
chemical threats. Today, our DSO Centre for Chemical Defence is among a
small number of laboratories being considered by the Organisation for
Prohibition of Chemical Warfare (OPCW) for international analytical
accreditation. Collaboration projects with Swedish and French defence research
establishments contributed significantly to building up our expertise.
Establishment of the Defence Science and
Technology Agency
The growing use of technology by the SAF means more demand for DTG’s
services and the need for more scientists and engineers. MINDEF will
have to compete with the rest of the economy for this limited pool of
manpower resources. It would need to make good use of external expertise
wherever possible. MINDEF therefore decided to transform DTG into a
statutory board called the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA)
in April 2000. DSTA will have the operating flexibility to recruit and deploy
talent, and to draw on external resources by collaborating with others. It
would also be better positioned to make use of commercial and dual-use
technologies.
The mission of DSTA is to harness and exploit science and technology to
meet the defence and national security needs of Singapore.