By Daryll Nanayakara

COME 2012, members of the Singapore National Cadet Corps (NCC) will begin donning a new set of fatigues, following in the footsteps of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).

The SAF has been issuing the new combat fatigues - which are lighter and quick-drying, with a pixellised design - since January this year.

What does this mean for NCC cadets?

Responding to queries from my paper, NCC head of information management Luke Tan said that all NCC members "will be equipped from 2012 onwards".

The NCC, one of the largest and most established youth organisations here, still uses the old camouflage-print uniform which the Army is now phasing out gradually.

By 2011, all National Service enlistees, regular soldiers and reservist personnel are expected to be equipped with the new uniform.

Once this is done, the NCC will follow the directives of the SAF in making the necessary arrangements for its own members to exchange their uniforms for the new one.

The move to remake the No. 4 - as the uniform is commonly referred to - was announced last September and was the most extensive redesign made to the SAF's fatigues since the older, interlocking prints were introduced in 1983.

Among the new features: The shirt of the uniform can be folded up to make an improvised triangular bandage; inward buttoning of sleeves prevents entanglement with objects; and integrated body armour protects against 9mm pistol rounds and 7.62mm general-purpose machine-gun rounds from as near as 15m.

Rank epaulettes for officers have also been moved to the chest area, while those of normal servicemen remain at the shoulders, but are slightly smaller.

When the new look was unveiled, the Ministry of Defence explained that the redesign would "meet the varying demands of the third-generation" operating environment.

It added that the new look would make it easier for SAF soldiers to avoid enemy detection and would "enhance the soldier's survivability and sustainability while in combat, helping him achieve greater overall mission success".

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