Plans for Singapore F-15 training detachment in Guam cancelled

MELBOURNE — A plan to base Singaporean F-15 fighter jets on Guam for training has been scrapped, Singapore’s defense ministry confirmed today in a statement, although some of the proposed infrastructure upgrades to the island’s sprawling Andersen Air Force Base to support the jets will still go ahead.

The decision was mutually agreed upon by Singapore and the US, according to the statement.

A Record of Decision released by the US Department of the Air Force and reported by the Guam Daily Post on Aug. 8, said that the decision was based on operational analysis, results of site surveys, environmental impacts as well as input from the public and government agencies and military judgment factors.

The department “will not implement or carry forward the beddown of up to 12 Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) F-15 aircraft nor associated aircraft airfield operations, to include temporary support aircraft, and RSAF personnel or their families and no periodic temporary increases in associated support personnel will be required at Andersen AFB,” the document reads.

It added that the DAF would construct approximately 20 acres of new infrastructure including a new aircraft parking apron, fuel supply system, and associated buildings and utilities on the northwest side of the existing runway at Andersen AFB.

However, associated plans to build three earth-covered magazines at a nearby munitions storage area would not go ahead.

An environmental impact study for the proposed expansion of base infrastructure said it would be “to provide critical infrastructure that enhances United States posture west of the International Date Line” in addition to supporting the Singaporean fighter detachment.

Guam is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. It is home to a large US military footprint that is set to grow as geopolitical tensions rise in the Indo-Pacific with additional Marines, long-range missiles, and missile defense systems set to be placed on the island in the coming years.

Singapore, a strategically located but tiny southeast Asian island nation, lacks sufficient airspace to train its military, which frequently deploys overseas for training. It had signed an agreement with the US in 2019 on the establishment of an RSAF fighter training detachment at Andersen Air Force Base that was expected to be established around 2029.

Singapore’s Defense Ministry said that a short-term fighter training detachment planned for October through November will still go ahead, the latest in a series of Singaporean air and naval exercises to be held in and around Guam, according to the statement.

It has also set up long-term training detachments at overseas bases, including in the United States where it has F-16 fighter jets based at Luke AFB and AH-64 attack helicopters at Silverbell Army Heliport in Arizona, as well as F-15s based at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho.

Singapore is poised to set up a training detachment for its future F-35 Lightning II fighters at Ebbing Air National Guard Base where a foreign F-35 training facility is located. The city-state is a staunch supporter of the US military presence in the Indo-Pacific, where it regularly hosts transiting US military aircraft and ships, and is the forward operating base for rotational deployments of US Navy Littoral Combat Ships.