text: is army service mandatory in singapore?   dear parvinder,  in singapore, there is an act called the enlistment act (chapter 93 of 2001), within this act is a section part iii titled national service which covers various broad details like who is eligible to be called up (those above 18 years of age) and how long they would serve their full-time national service (not exceeding 2 years with some exceptions listed usually a promotion in ranks with a cap of not more than 2 years and 6 months of service).  interestingly the act does not state that national service is only for males, but at the moment, the authority authorized to make the decision has only called up males for national service (this implies that statutorily, if the authority decides to call up females it can do so).  not everyone will qualify or need to serve, as the statute also require that the persons called up be checked for fitness to perform national service, but everyone called up will still need to report for registration and the check for fitness before they are officially informed of their start of their national service.  national service in singapore is not restricted to the army only, depending on the needs of the authority, the selected personnels could serve in the armed forces, naval force, air force, police force and civil defence force.  in short, yes national service is mandatory for those who are called up to perform the service.  but being a mandatory service, the statutes also provide for some additional coverage in terms of protecting the rights for those called up for service. for more details you might be interested in another act called the national servicemen (employment) act - chapter 202 of 1985. this aims to protect those who are asked to serve the country from losing their jobs and ensure that they are able to go back to their work place after performing their national duty.  there is also more information about national service for singapore that can be found in a portal build for national servicemen called the ns portal, this can be found at www.ns.sg  in general, even after completion of the fullt-tme national service, there is still a need to serve part-time national service (usually on an annual basis), for non-commissioned officers they are not expected to serve beyond 40 years of age, for commissioned officers not expected to serve beyond 45 years of age (but there are some citizens who volunteer their services for longer periods) - the age limit is basically an upper limit you can find more information from the ns portal.  for more details about the citations please see the link below: