
DSTA and Thales Announce AI-Driven Co-Lab to Strengthen Singapore’s Defence Systems
At the 2025 Singapore Defence Technology Summit (Tech Summit), a joint team from DSTA and Thales showcased its recent collaboration on counter-drone technologies, with tangible outcomes that can potentially be integrated into systems currently in-use with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
Over the last five months, engineers from both organisations co-developed Machine-Learning (ML)-enabled software modules that reduce the rate of false alarms in drone detection. By enhancing a radar’s sensor performance with the help of AI, the algorithms offer operators and end-users heightened situational awareness that enable faster and more accurate drone detection and classification.
Through this demonstration of a new Concept of Operations (CONOPs) in enhanced radar performance in drones, the team leveraged physics-, knowledge- and data-based AI, bringing together DSTA’s deep domain knowledge of the drone ecosystem and the technical and AI skills of Thales researchers and engineers. The announcement of the Co-Lab represents the next step in the strategic cooperation between DSTA and Thales, underscoring both parties’ ambitions to support the SAF in dealing with emerging and asymmetric threats.
