For years, policymakers and experts here have been seized by the effects of an ageing population, raising social spending and putting in place a raft of comprehensive initiatives and policies. These include elderly-friendly infrastructure and greater support all round for seniors, ramping up healthcare facilities, driving productivity improvements, raising the re-employment age and transforming the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).

Based on official population projections, the Republic is now on the cusp of major demographic shifts.

From next year, enlistment rates for full-time National Service (NS) will begin to fall, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said in 2012.

Come 2020, more citizens will leave the workforce than start work each year, the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) has forecast.

By then, the number of working-age Singaporeans will decline while citizens aged 65 and older is expected to more than double from 440,000 today to 900,000 by 2030.

… Technology, as it currently stands, has its limits,” said Mr Ho, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies under the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

“There will be a natural limit as to how lean the SAF can go as a degree of redundancy has to be built in,” said Mr Ho, noting that in wartime, there will be casualties, which further reduce a military’s manpower. The “value proposition” of a military career must transcend remuneration and job prospects, he said.