Singapore
\nSingapore will replace its ageing F-16 fighter jets with F-35 Joint Strike Fighter , the defence ministry announced on Friday, as the city-state opts for the US warplane over European and Chinese-made stealth fighters.<\/p>\n
Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in June last year had said that Singapore was evaluating a range of options, including Lockheed Martin\u2019s F-35, Europe\u2019s Eurofighter Typhoon and Chinese-made stealth fighters to replace F-16s.<\/p>\n
The RSAF is expected to acquire a \u201csmall number\u201d of the F-35 JSF for a full evaluation. This follows a five-year technical evaluation by the RSAF and Defence Science and Technology Agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe technical evaluation also concluded that the RSAF should first purchase a small number of F-35 JSFs for a full evaluation of their capabilities and suitability before deciding on a full fleet,\u201d the defence ministry said in a statement.Details that will be discussed include price, quantity and which variant of the jet to buy, as well as issues like logistical requirements and the training of pilots.<\/p>\n
The F-35A the conventional take-off and landing variant costs USD 89.2 million, according to maker Lockheed Martin. It is believed that Singapore is interested in the B variant, which costs more and can take off from shorter runways and land vertically, according to a Channel News Asia report.<\/p>\n
If discussions are successful, Singapore will proceed to buy a few F-35s for a full evaluation. The length of this phase is unclear and will also depend on developments during tests by other militaries which operate the F-35.<\/p>\n
What is clear, however, is that the defence ministry is working on a timeline that will not jeopardise the replacement of the F-16s, which face obsolescence beyond 2030. It is understood that the defence ministry is still on track to meet this target. \u201cOur RSAF\u2019s F-16s that were in service since 1998 will have to retire soon after 2030, even after their mid-life upgrades,\u201d Ng said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Singapore Singapore will replace its ageing F-16 fighter jets with F-35 Joint Strike Fighter , the defence ministry announced on Friday, as the city-state opts for the US warplane over European and Chinese-made stealth fighters. Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in June last year had said that Singapore was evaluating a range of options, including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52979,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52977\/revisions\/52979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}