SINGAPORE — The U.S. Andersen Air Force Base in Guam is ready to open its doors to half of Singapore’s F-15 fleet, as the town state seeks to ramp up its combat readiness.
The move to pay attention air warfare capabilities on the distant American installation, situated on the rim of the Philippine Sea, is an element of a modernization plan proposed by the U.S. air service.
Over the past few years, North Korea has threatened various times to attack the small island, as was the case in 2017 when U.S. bombers took off from there to patrol the skies of ally South Korea.
“Andersen AFB is a strategic location used to project airpower and expand combat capability from the forward fringe of the Indo-Pacific – our intent is to further resource this location,” a spokesperson for U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) told Defense News in an email.
“The aim of the proposed motion is to supply critical infrastructure that enhances U.S. posture west of the International Date Line,” the statement said.
The Singapore-related upgrades entail the bed-down and mission support of as much as 12 Singaporean F-15SG aircraft, a variant of Boeing’s F-15 Strike Eagle, with plans to supply training facilities for pilots.
The changes, as detailed in a December U.S. Air Force statement, may also increase airfield and munitions infrastructure to deal with capability gaps and enhance how ground operations are carried out. The development is predicted to affect 209 acres and happen over a period of three to seven years.
There may be currently no fixed date for when the work could begin. The Guam installation, one among ten bases under the authority of PACAF, is the just one within the western Pacific that may constantly overhaul American heavy bombers.
It’s more likely to have been chosen by the U.S. Air Force for this project, as Guam is understood to have a comparatively unconfined airspace and has been deemed vital by analysts within the event of military motion by North Korea.
Moreover, it’s near the Farallon de Medinilla, a 1.75 mile-long (2.8 km) unoccupied island, used as a training bombing range from Andersen.
The U.S. air service “reviewed requirements for strategic capabilities throughout the Indo-Pacific region and identified Andersen AFB for enhanced capabilities, dismissing five other potential alternative locations throughout the Pacific Air Forces area of responsibility from consideration,” the PACAF statement said.
Singapore signed an initial $1.6 billion cope with Boeing in 2005 for the procurement of 12 F-15SG fighter aircraft, after which it ordered an extra 12 aircraft, leading to a fleet of not less than 24 fighters.
“The F-15SGs remain a crucial a part of our fighter fleet – they’ve been serving us well since 2009 and so they are expected to proceed to satisfy our operational needs,” Maj. Gen. Kelvin Khong, chief of the Republic of Singapore Air Force, or RSAF, said in a press release ahead of the Singapore Airshow organized here from Feb. 20-25.
The RSAF has also been operating F-16s for several years, which began undergoing mid-life upgrades in 2016, as the town state plans to retire them from mid-2030 onwards and can soon receive its first F-35Bs from Lockheed Martin.
“The RSAF next-generation fleet will consist of F-35s and F-15SGs, and we expect to take delivery of the primary 4 F-35Bs by 2026 and remaining eight in the next years,” Khong said.
The official added that the country plans to start the training of its first F-35 pilots in the USA with the intention to enhance cooperation between the 2 nations’ fleets.
Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a big selection of topics related to military procurement and international security, and makes a speciality of reporting on the aviation sector. She relies in Milan, Italy.