Singapore’s flock of F-15 Eagles will not be landing and setting up a nest on the US territory of Guam. More specifically, the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) will not be basing its fleet of F-15SG jet fighters on a long-term basis at Andersen Air Force Base (AFB) as previously planned.

The US Department of the Air Force announced this week that it has canceled the upcoming deployment that was part of a 2019 memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would have seen the RSAF aircraft and personnel based on Guam as part of a fighter training unit. It would have been the republic’s fourth training unit on US territory.

A dozen fighters, along with RASF personnel and their families, were to have been based at Andersen. It is unclear why the DAF opted to cancel the program.

The Republic of Singapore, which is located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, “lacks sufficient airspace to train its military, which frequently deploys overseas for training,” Breaking Defense explained. The long-term training detachment on Guam was to begin operations by the end of the decade.

RSAF fighters will still be deployed to Guam, but for “periodic short-training” including a scheduled joint training mission to be held in October through November, the........

© The National Interest