Founded as the Electronics Test Centre (ETC), it was established in 1972 by then-Minister for Defence Goh Keng Swee, to conduct research on future warfare.
[2] Today, much of the work done by DSO has gone into Singapore's military, as well as into agencies responsible for homeland security.
[3] In 1977, the ETC was renamed and formally established as the Defence Science Organisation (DSO) with 50 engineers.
[7][8] DSO launched TeLEOS-1 into space in 2015, Singapore's first commercial near earth observation satellite.
Having grown to 1,500 engineers in 2017, DSO moved into its new home at Science Park Drive and is now the largest defence research and development organisation in Singapore with research domains across land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace.