SINGAPORE – More than 40 speakers from 14 countries are in Singapore for a summit to discuss the most pertinent challenges facing the global defence tech landscape.
Organised by the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), the Singapore Defence Technology Summit (SDTS) 2025 is being held at the Shangri-La Hotel from March 18 to March 20.
Speaking at the opening dinner on March 18, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said the summit, now in its fifth edition, is a platform for discussions on safeguards to ensure the responsible use of defence technology even as innovations are being shared by participants.
“This difficult tension with new discoveries – new technology, on the one hand, improving our lives, while on the other, potentially causing harm – is a recurrent theme in the progress of mankind,” he said, citing the discovery of fire as an example.
“Even now, this dilemma of progress versus peril stays with us. I doubt if it will ever cease. Today, we grapple with the same conundrum applied to gene-editing, gain-of-function research, social and digital media, quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI).”
Nevertheless, he said he was encouraged by the attendance at the 2025 summit – 100 top officials from 40 countries are participating, compared with 50 officials from 20 countries at the first summit in 2018.
DSTA chief executive Ng Chad-Son said that collaborations forged are vital as participants navigate today’s uncertain world.
“This year’s SDTS is taking place at an important time, with a confluence of many factors – global conflict, geopolitical uncertainty, growing defence budgets, fast moving technology – all leading to disruptive innovation in defence technology,” he added.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat will deliver the opening address on March 19, while Mr **Seok Jong** **Gun**, South Korea’s minister of the Defence Acquisition Program Administration (Dapa) will present the government leader remarks.
Other notable speakers at the summit include Mr Brandon Tseng, the president and co-founder of US technology company Shield AI.
The company is collaborating with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and DSTA to co-develop AI for autonomous flight operations using Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software, DSTA said on March 18.
The software enables just a few human operators to control a large number of unmanned aircraft, Currently, each unmanned aircraft requires several people to operate it.
DSTA said Shield AI’s expertise in AI-enabled software to control autonomous drones and aircraft will improve the RSAF’s fighting capabilities.
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