Digital & Intelligence Service a Fourth Military Branch

Singapore is set to launch a new military service before the end of the year, to enhance its defences against an evolving spectrum of security threats, particularly in the digital domain.

The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) announced on 2 March that the ‘Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS)’ – a fourth military branch alongside the army, air force, and navy – will integrate and expand the Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF’s) digital and cyber capabilities. The service will be tasked with providing “accurate, relevant and timely early warning and operational intelligence” as well as advancing command connectivity to enable the military to operate as a “networked force”, said MINDEF, adding that it will also be responsible for cyber defence and the electronic protection of military networks and systems.

Described as the next step in development of SAF’s C4I community, the establishment of this dedicated digital force, which is meant to complement the other services, is one of the steps required to complete MINDEF’s vision of SAF in 2040.

Speaking to Parliament on 2 March about the need for the new service, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said that the digital domain “has become as real as the land, air and sea domains for which we have raised the army, the air force and the navy…. Threats that emanate in the digital domain can readily impact events in the real physical world. That divide between virtual and physical, in security terms is a false one as the two are in fact intricately interwoven.”

While the country’s intelligence sources have yet to identify orchestrated attempts to subvert or subjugate Singapore using hybrid means, this does not mean that the threat will never come, “so we best prepare now with a longer runway,” said Ng. He also explained that, over the past decade, MINDEF/SAF has progressively built up its C4I community. Moreover, the Defence Cyber Organisation (DCO) was launched in 2017 to co-ordinate cyber security across the defence sector.

Ng warned, however, that demands on the intelligence community, and their direct responsibilities regarding threats in both digital and physical worlds have risen sharply – hence the formation of a new service for the C4I community “will greatly facilitate their mission focus, sharpen direct responsibility and accountability, and capability development […] The current DCO is building up such a force, but it is insufficient for the SAF’s expanding needs. Figuratively, if the digital force is now a battalion force, we actually need a few brigades, perhaps even a division-size force”.

Ng also pointed out that DIS, set to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year, “should not and cannot be” just like the army, air force and navy, with similar troops operating in the digital domain instead of the physical domain. He said the nature of the digital domain and the threats therein require different skill sets and mindsets. “The SAF envisages that the type of soldiers you recruit for the DIS, their training, their force structure will be different…. Technology, especially related to IT and communications will play a big role for the DIS. But it will also require a force with specialisations … in diverse areas including data science, psychology, linguistics, anthropology, and geography, that will help them understand the motivation and means in which orchestrated state and non-state groups aim to harm Singapore”.

The minister told Parliament the addition of this fourth service will allow SAF to better train and fight as a networked, integrated, and expanded force, to deal not only with the current range of threats, but also those in the digital domain “that we know will increase in the future”. He also said that other countries have come to the same conclusion, and added a digital force to their conventional services. He mentioned Germany as an example, saying it has established a Cyber and Information Domain Service, consolidating its Communication and Information Systems Command, and Geoinformation Centre.

Gabriel Dominguez in Singapore for MON