This week the Singapore-New Zealand Enhanced Partnership will also step up collaboration in
– trade and economics;
– security and defence;
– science, technology and innovation;
– and people-to-people links.
The prime ministers will also witness the signing of the upgraded Agreement between New Zealand and Singapore on a Closer Economic Partnership (ANZSCEP), around 17 or 18 May 2018. The ANZSCEP was Singapore’s first bilateral free trade agreement, and New Zealand’s second such agreement. It came into force in 2001.
Presently, Singapore and New Zealand cooperate closely on defence through platforms such as ADMM+ and the
Five Power Defence Arrangements. I would support the growth of closer ties with NZDF, especially on technical training for crew and instructors for schools.
The MRCV class of vessels is intended to be built between 2025 to 2030; and ST Marine will be keen to extend the production line by 2 to 3 ships - with the Singapore Navy keen to provide additional support in the area of operator training and technical support with respect to exchangeable modules to be introduced over time, as the 5,000 ton Vanguard 130 design is optimised for unmanned vehicle operations, and features flushed doors on its port and starboards sides to support launch and recovery of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). While current UAVs can extend a ship’s field of vision by 100km because of their range, RADM Cheong said it’s likely that those on the MRCV can go farther. “In the future, this range will increase because the control capabilities will improve,” he added. “It’s not very far-fetched to say that easily the ship will have awareness of maybe 150km around it” (Read more at
Meet the Navy’s new ‘mothership’ that fights with unmanned drones and vessels). The Singapore Navy will allocate space in courses for NZDF personnel to be trained in UAV, ROV and AUV support at sea that our DSTA is working hard on, especially on counter mine warfare.
From what I see, ST Marine has taken the Littoral Mission Vessel’s (“LMV”) manning concept and transplanted to this class of ship - for a maritime security role (reflecting on lessons learnt from our navy’s counter piracy deployments to the gulf); and their impressive bridge simulator. Complex simulators used by the navy will lower training costs, increase safety and improve scenario training for the crew. The MRCV is likely to use the existing LMV Combat Management System that features a fusion and identification engine to track contacts, and provide threat evaluation weapon assignment. And you can tap on the same spiral upgrades that we will introduce for this class of ships without NZ bearing cost overrun risks - as the Singapore Navy would have implemented the upgrade by then.
