Singapore Announces Plan To Purchase F-35As
The Republic of Singapore will purchase eight F-35A Lightning II fighters, with the conventional takeoff-and-landing fighters to complement the twelve short-takeoff-and-landing F-35Bs already being procured.
Singaporean Defense Minister Dr. Ng Eng Hen made the announcement during parliamentary debate on the defense ministry budget on February 28.
According to Dr. Ng, the F-35As are being procured due to their greater endurance and larger payload capability, complementing the “operational flexibility” provided by the F-35Bs. The F-35As are expected to be delivered around 2030, while current planning has a first batch of four F-35Bs delivered in 2026, with the remaining eight to be delivered in 2028.
Dr. Ng said that the defense ministry and Singapore’s armed forces may have had to deprioritize other projects in order to make the purchase within the “window of opportunity”, but the ministry considered this the best time to procure the F-35A, as they are now “priced more competitively, comparable to the F-15EX” per comments posted on the minister’s social media pages following the debate.
Both the F-35As and Bs will replace the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s current fleet of F-16s, which will be gradually retired from the mid-2030s. They will serve alongside the RSAF’s F-15SGs, a variant of the Strike Eagle.
The announcement of the F-35A purchase comes shortly after F-35 and F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin entered into an agreement with Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency to create a new data pipeline infrastructure for “seamless” sharing of RSAF F-16 maintenance information.
Established on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow, the new data pipeline aims to provide improved data analytics insights for the optimisation of aircraft maintenance support, facilitating reduced aircraft sustainment costs, improvement in overall fleet availability and enhanced RSAF operational readiness.
“This is what engineering for Sustainment looks like in action. Through this agreement, Lockheed Martin will be better positioned to meet the needs of DSTA, now and for the years to follow,” said Steve Sheehy, Vice President for Sustainment Campaigns at Lockheed Martin. “Together, we will be able to analyze and implement solutions to improve maintenance of the Republic of Singapore Air Force F-16 fleet.” Sheehy added: “Lockheed Martin’s 21st Century Security vision aims to deliver integrated mission-focused defence capabilities by innovating with urgency, and this agreement enables collaboration towards that vision.”