A plan to station up to 12 Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) F-15SG fighter jets at Andersen Air Force Base in the US territory of Guam has been dropped, Singapore’s Ministry of Defence confirmed.
It followed a mutual decision between the US and Singapore. Washington cited an assessment of the plan’s environmental impact, while the Southeast Asian country attributed the discontinuation to be based on a review of the RSAF’s training requirements.
The scrapped plan was supposed to establish an RSAF F-15 training detachment in Guam by 2029, as part of a December 2023 proposal built on a 2019 memorandum between Singapore’s defense ministry and the US Department of Defense.
Despite the cancellation, Singapore’s defense ministry affirmed that it will still proceed with short-term training exercises in the Western Pacific US territory, including one scheduled from October to November.
Record of Decision
In July, the US Department of the Air Force released a record of decision on the “Final Environmental Impact Statement for F-15 Beddown and Infrastructure Upgrades at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.”
While the planned beddown of the RSAF F-15s and related support, as well as upgrades in the Munitions Storage Area-1, have been discontinued, the department stated that it will proceed with constructing new infrastructure on the northwest side of the existing runway at Andersen AFB.
These include about 20 acres (8 hectares) of new airfield pavements, fuel lines, and roadways, in which the expanded area will be used for aircraft parking, storage, maintenance, refueling, loading, and unloading.
Singapore Air Force Assets Abroad
The small island country of Singapore frequently deploys its military aircraft for training overseas due to its limited local land and airspace.
This includes the RSAF F-16 fighter detachment at Luke AFB in Arizona and F-15s at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, as well as AH-64 attack helicopters at Silverbell Army Heliport in Arizona.
If the shelved plan had pushed through, it would have counted as the fourth RSAF detachment on US territory and the closest one to Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, the city-state is working with the US to set up the RSAF’s future F-35 fighter training unit at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, which features facilities intended for F-35 Lightning II pilot training under foreign military sales programs.
Apart from the US, Singapore has training detachments in Australia and France.
