YOUTH now have a say in the look and feel of future machines of war even before they are enlisted into the army.

This will allow the military to design platforms that will be best suited for their future operators.

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Armour Formation and the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) kick-started the project last December, when it got polytechnic students to test its systems. The 18 Nanyang Polytechnic students, both males and females, were put in a specially developed simulator that is akin to an armoured vehicle of the future.

They were put through various scenarios to hunt and destroy enemy vehicles using joysticks, periscopes and touch-screens.

DSTA's land systems programme centre principal engineer Tan Chuan Yean said the one-day study allowed its engineers to find out what features youths liked about the consoles and panels.

The system to use their feedback in developing new military machines will be widened to include upper secondary students within the next two years, said Chief Armour Officer Philip Lim in an interview with The Straits Times to mark the formation's 40th anniversary.

Brigadier-General Philip Lim said the formation wants to bring these teens on board 'as early as possible' to try out the systems which, he said, will be as advanced as digital games such as the popular Wii or Xbox game consoles.

'It's important to incorporate their feedback so when they come into the force, they will feel absolutely intuitive when using the systems that they are accustomed to,' he said.

BG Lim said the move to get teens to test its future war machines was part of the SAF's push to modernise itself.

Technology and machines must be made simple for the soldiers so they can get the maximum potential out of it.

As BG Lim puts it: 'We don't want to man the equipment, we want to equip the man.'

Defence analyst Bernard Loo from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said the move to engage the young is an 'enlightened approach'.

'Very few armed forces are doing something like that,' he said.

One of the project participants, Mr Lew Bin Lun, 21, said it took him minutes to learn how to use the system.

The third-year multimedia infocomm technology student, who will be enlisted next year, said: 'The buttons and controls were so user-friendly and very similar to the keyboard and joystick we use to play Red Alert and Warcraft.'

JERMYN CHOW

This article was first published in The Straits Times.