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Singapore Improving Special Operations Capabilities

Dec 13, 2019

Singapore's command center — Petty Officer 1st Class Lee Tran, from Portland, Oregon, monitors links in the tactical flag command center aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis. A link is a high frequency, narrow band transmitter used for communicating with outside forces. Stennis is participating in Northern Edge 2009, a joint exercise that focuses on detecting and tracking objects at sea, in the air and on land.

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In response to the growing threat of transnational terrorism, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has commissioned its new Special Operations Command Center (SOCC). It is a centralized command center that will boost connectivity to homeland security and civil defense agencies, enhancing the SAF Special Operations Task Force’s (SOTF’s) ability to respond to terrorist activity across the island.

According to Singapore’s Ministry of Defense, the SOCC, based in the eastern part of Singapore, is a joint development between the SAF and the Defense Science and Technology Agency (DSTA).

The Center is equipped with an organic C4I system to make sense of acquired data from multiple SAF and government-owned sensors and intelligence sources, including last-mile surveillance assets such as unmanned aerial systems (UASs) to generate a synchronised picture of the situation, as reported by janes.com.

The Defense Ministry also stated that the SOCC will exploit data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to support the collection and analysis of mission critical information, as well as a decision support capability to SOTF planners to expedite their planning and execution processes. It will also facilitate access and sharing of information between SOTF and other government agencies to boost planning and coordination during joint operations.