THE Singapore Army will get a new chief on March 21.
Brigadier-General (BG) Perry Lim Cheng Yeow, 41, will be replacing Major-General Ravinder Singh, 49, who has been Chief of Army since 2011.
Maj-Gen Singh will be leaving the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) after he relinquishes his appointment, the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. It added that the change of command is part of the continuing process of leadership renewal in the SAF.
BG Lim, currently the Chief of Staff (General Staff), joined the SAF in December 1990. He was awarded the President's and SAF Overseas scholarships a year later.
He graduated from Cambridge University with first-class honours in Mechanical Engineering. He was also awarded the Lee Kuan Yew postgraduate scholarship in 2008 and obtained a Master of Public Administration degree from Insead, Singapore.
During his military career, he has commanded the 1st Battalion, Singapore Guards, as well as the army's 3rd Division. He also chaired last year's National Day Parade executive committee.
Maj-Gen Singh joined the SAF in December 1982 and was awarded an SAF overseas scholarship. He has a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Oxford University and also a Master of Science (Management of Technology) degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He commanded the 3rd Signal Battalion and 6th Division and served as the SAF's chief of staff-joint staff. He also headed the SAF's Joint Plans and Transformation department.
Maj-Gen Singh retired from active military service in 2009 and became Mindef's deputy secretary (technology). He returned to the SAF to lead the army - the first operationally ready national serviceman (NSman) to do so - replacing outgoing chief Chan Chun Sing who went into politics and is now the Second Defence Minister.
Acknowledging his achievements in his military career, Mindef said Maj-Gen Singh served the SAF with distinction. It credited him for maintaining a high state of operational readiness in the army, including the operationalisation of Third Generation (3G) capabilities like the motorised infantry battalion and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System Battery.
