The US State Department has announced that it has approved the sale of 12 F35Bs, a vertical take-off and landing version of the Lockheed-Martin aircraft, to replace some of the F16s in service with the Singapore Air Force by 2030 . The contract, estimated at $ 2,75 billion, breaks down into 4 devices on firm order, and 8 options, as well as all the services and spare parts for the maintenance and training of crews and technical personnel.
The choice of the F35B, which notably equips the US Marines Corps and the Royal Air Force to arm aircraft carriers and assault helicopters, and which is significantly more expensive than the US Air Force's F35A, is revealing an evolution of tensions in the Indo-Pacific theater. The Royal Singapore Navy does not have any vessels potentially capable of implementing such devices, or capable of evolving in this perspective, as is the case in South Korea or Japan. Like Taiwan, the objective sought by this acquisition is therefore probably to be able to disperse these aircraft on makeshift or improvised land, so as to maintain an air response capacity if its air bases were to be hit.
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[…] C/D, in the face of rising regional tensions, particularly with China. A year later, the small country ordered 4 F-35Bs, the short or vertical take-off and landing version of Lockheed-Martin's […]