Singapore plans to purchase eight additional Lockheed Martin F-35B fighter jets, bringing the total number of STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) aircraft in its fleet to 12 by 2030, announced the country’s Defense Minister, Ng Eng Hen.
“The Singapore air force will be acquiring eight more F-35Bs, to be added to our fleet by the end of this decade,” the defense minister tweeted.
According to the Minister, the decision follows a full evaluation by the Singapore Defence Ministry and the Singapore Air Force, which concluded that the F-35 would be the best option for meeting the country’s defense needs both now and in the future.
The acquisition of additional F-35Bs will support the retirement of the nation’s Lockheed F-16 fleet in the mid-2030s, said Ng Eng Hen, while notifying that the ultimate goal is to include F-35s and Boeing F-15SGs in Singapore’s fighter fleet.
Singapore first confirmed its plans to purchase four F-35s in January 2019, which were later confirmed to be the B-model STOVL variant. The STOVL variant’s ability to operate from short runways is likely to be viewed as a significant advantage in Singapore, where land is scarce.
The announcement of Singapore’s plans to acquire additional F-35Bs was made as part of the country’s 2023 budget. In addition to the fighter jets, the Singapore military will increase its use of advanced simulators, allowing for combined virtual exercises and providing many possibilities for training, according to Hen.
The US Department of State approved a Foreign Military Sales deal to supply up to 12 F-35Bs to Singapore for an estimated $2.75 billion in January 2020.
Initial F-35 acquisition plan
Under the original plan, Singapore was set to receive its F-35s in 2026, but the aircraft will not fly to Singapore; instead, they will operate from Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas.
In September 2022, Major Zhang Jiangwei, a Republic of Singapore Air Force officer involved in the F-35 evaluation program, suggested that Singapore might consider other F-35 variants, including the conventional take-off and landing F-35A. However, Jiangwei emphasized that any determination would depend on the results of the evaluation and that the future remained uncertain.