Singapore pilots to train in Idaho
TWIN FALLS, Idaho – The first elements of a unit of the Royal Singapore Air Force are scheduled to begin arriving at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Southern Idaho in October, and the first fighter jets the following April.
“A combination of factors, including the base’s flying training range, F-15E squadron and existing infrastructure, helped determine Mountain Home’s selection to host the unit,” said 1st Lt. Matthew Stines, a Mountain Home deputy chief of public affairs.
The five- to 20-year training contract will initially bring up to 20 new F-15SG fighter jets and 179 active-duty Singapore personnel plus their families to the sage-and-grass plain between the Danskin and Owyhee mountains.
About 128 U.S. personnel will also be needed to repair planes and beef up other facilities.
Singapore, an island nation of 4.5 million in southeast Asia, is a close ally of the United States and a staunch supporter of the war on terror. It was named an al-Qaida target by the group’s alleged operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during a tribunal last year at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Shelton Woods, a professor of Southeast Asian history at Boise State University, said Singapore is also strategically important for the U.S. because it’s next to the Malacca Straits, an important oil shipping corridor.
He also noted having good relations with Singapore, which is 90 percent ethnic Chinese, could help in future relations with China, North Korea and South Korea.
He characterized the Singapore pilots training in the U.S. as more of a diplomatic move rather than a military necessity.
However, officials say a lack of airspace in the nation of 63 islands on the Malay Peninsula’s southern tip limits training for Singapore pilots.
The F-15SG aircraft the Singapore pilots will use for training in Southern Idaho is an advanced version of the U.S. Air Force’s F-15E Strike Eagle jet, according to the aircraft’s manufacturer, Boeing Co.
The company is scheduled deliver 12 of the jets to Singapore this year and in 2009, and the nation has the option to buy eight more. The jets are expected to arrive in Southern Idaho in April 2009.
The aircraft is designed for ground attack and defending against enemy aircraft.
At Mountain Home Air Force Base, a $60 million construction plan and building spree will add 112,567 square feet of new on-base facilities to accommodate the Singapore flyers and their aircraft. The new construction will make room for aircraft engine repair, munitions storage and office space.
Mountain Home was selected over Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., which was also studied by the Air Force.
The Singaporean personnel will be under U.S. operational control while at Mountain Home, said Bill Richey, Gov. Butch Otter’s special assistant for military affairs and a retired Air Force colonel.
“It’s an outstanding strategic partnership,” he said. “For the United States it’s a real positive, plus for the overall strategy of the whole world. For Idaho, it’s an economic boon.”
The base in recent years has had shorter-term training missions with Israeli, German, British and Australian personnel, said Ron Swearingen, the city of Mountain Home’s economic development director. The base has what he said is a topflight electronic training range.
He said the arrival of the Royal Singapore Air Force will benefit the town of 14,000 with cultural and social diversity.
The Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project opposes allowing the Singapore pilots to train in Idaho.
“We are alarmed that the citizens of Idaho, Oregon and Nevada get new and added air and visual pollution, range fires from flares, litter from chaff, noise, sonic booms, testing and use of devices of unknown kinds with unknown effects on human health and well being – to benefit the Singapore Air Force,” the group said.