SHAH ALAM: Singapore to buy F-35s. Singapore Defense Ministry today announced that it has identified the F-35 as the most suitable replacement for its fleet of F-16s. It says with the F-16s to be retired soon after 2030 the decision to acquire the F-35 – likely to be concluded within one year – will give the RSAF ample time to prepare for the arrival of the new jet.
It says that it will buy a small batch of F-35s first before deciding on a full fleet later on. It did not say how many or which variants it will be buying.
The official release:
The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) have completed their technical evaluation to select the next generation fighter to replace its F-16s. The F-16s will have to retire soon after 2030 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has been identified as the most suitable replacement to maintain the RSAF’s capabilities.
However, the 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. In the next phase, MINDEF will discuss details with relevant parties in the US before confirming its decision to acquire the F-35 JSFs for Singapore’s defence capabilities.
The statement from Dr Ng Eng Hen, the Singapore Defense Minister.
The Republic of Singapore Air Force’s F-16s that were in service since 1998 will have to retire soon after 2030, even after their mid-life upgrades. That’s not very far away, just over 10 years, to acquire their replacement and, just as important, to build the logistic support and train pilots individually and as a fleet to guard our skies.
Happy to report that DSTA Defence Science and Technology Agency and RSAF have completed their technical evaluation for the replacement. It took longer than expected – more than five years – as they had to go through in detail specifications and needs, which they could only do after developmental flight testing of the F-35s was completed in early 2018. They have decided that the F-35 would be the most suitable replacement fighter.
Our agencies will now have to speak to their US counterparts to move the process forward, which may take 9 – 12 months before a decision is made. Even then, we want to procure a few planes first, to fully evaluate the capabilities of the F-35 before deciding on the acquisition of a full fleet. We must prepare well and cater enough time to replace our F-16s.
Singapore decision on the F-35 was expected, it had been evaluating the JSF since 2004. The delays involving the program is the main reason it had delayed comitting to the stealth fighter until now. Even then it is still cautiously threading ahead not wanting to spend so much for the time being.
— Malaysian Defence
If you like this post, buy me an espresso. Paypal Payment
View Comments (42)
Standard annncemen. They bought 8 F15s initially too...
Der no other 5th gen western jet but the f35 so this will be multi year buy in batch orders like f15 and f16s.
Testing is to me codeword to have f35sg. DPM Teo visit Israel recently.
They rich n careful. They plan ahead without make the fleet break down. It will not happen to us interm of $, politic, n mind set. Just hope RMAF get enough jet to secure our sky. We have no $ to buy high end product.
If use available jet into IT world
F-35 just like Microsoft Dynamic
Tyhnoon n Rafale like Sage
F-18f n gripen like Microsoft AX
Su-30mkm or Su-35 like SAP
Others like 3rd party ERP system.
The lesson for us here is budgetary certainty and consistency.
It will be interesting to see which variant Singapore wants- F-35A, B or I.
As for retiring Singapore's F-16s, I believe retiring the oldest airframes will have more to do with the necessary force size than the lifespan of the airframes per se. It is not likely that the RSAF will need to retain that many F-16s considering the large numbers of advanced F-35, -15SG and -16Vs that it has/will have.
On the other hand, I expect many F-16s to be retained and even further upgraded to serve well beyond 2030. The platform is more than sufficient for many tasks, especially in a permissive environment that the F-35 and F-15 will have no problem delivering.
Breakdown on the age of Singapore's F-16s here.
http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article17.html
It's their pattern.
When SG bought F-16, initially they bought a small number F-16A/B (donated to RTAF already in exchanged of training area). Later when the F-16 reach block 52 then they bought a large number.
Well. Here's the spark of new South East Asia arms race.
Next question is
Is it going to be the F-35B version?
In the mean time, RMAF wants to evaluate Tejas. Our defence planner need to think 20 years ahead and not 10 years back. No good news is coming from our defence news portal. Sigh
As I have said. SG being one of the developmental partner (albeit late coming 2nd tier one), they will certainly buy F-35s. Its just a matter of when and how many. Will their numbers fully replace F-16s? Nope. Even USAF is having problems doing that with the high cost of each plane.
They spend about 4% of their GDP(which our GDP is slightly smaller than theirs) on defence, which 3x higher than us. Good move on their part.
Some say its the platform package not the platform itself that matters and stealth no longer the only invincible factor.
We need to have the necessary quantity to do our peace time role which luckily we are still at peace
"Will their numbers fully replace F-16s? Nope. Even USAF is having problems doing that with the high cost of each plane."
That is a flawed argument. The US is not the be all end all in terms of expenditure per platform. There are several militaries that do indeed exceed the US in the average cost or quality per platform.
Have you noticed that Singapore, like Japan and Israel, is cleared to buy very advanced systems but instead spends great sums developing their own just to produce a small number of examples? Over time, they've come to spec these systems lavishly too.
Some countries are just exceptionally rich (Arabs come to mind). Others have small standing forces relative to neighbours (Singapore, Israel) and feel the need to invest in quality. I dare say Japan will be replacing their F-4s with F-35s on a one to one basis. Why not Singapore?
Despite the US having the world's largest budget, it simply cannot be expected to match several countries in cost per platform terms. The US has the world's most diversified military and spreads the budget over more competing areas than anyone else (how many carriers and ICBMs does Singapore have?) It is actively engaged in overseas operations (how much do you think Singapore even spends on border patrol?) and has high personnel costs. Thanks to national service, a pretty high proportion of Singapore's budget goes into equipment (although in absolute terms, their conscripts are still paid better than our regulars.)