The move to match interests with national service vocations is a good step forward, but the young men heading for enlistment will also have to manage their expectations, defence experts said. This is because operational requirements are still paramount, meaning enlistees may be posted to less popular vocations if that is where soldiers are required. Assoc Prof Bernard Loo, a defence analyst at the RSIS, said there is always great demand for infantry as the “reality is that the single greatest human resource requirement is in infantry”. Defence analyst Ho Shu Huang, an associate research fellow at RSIS, also said the new system is an improvement upon the current one, which “only factors in aptitude and not interest”.