Despite being a small island city-state, Singapore is spending billions of dollars to buy F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters, but an unclassified Pentagon report has revealed that it will not base all its jets locally.
Singapore is purchasing 20 Lockheed Martin F-35 fifth-generation stealth jets.
After considering the F-35 purchase for a decade, Singapore announced the decision to buy four F-35B jets (with an option to buy eight more) in 2019 and subsequently signed the Letter of Acceptance (LoA) for 12 F-35B jets in March 2020.
However, with an appetite for more of these fifth-generation fighters, it announced the purchase of eight more F-35A variants in February 2024, and signed an LoA in February 2025, bringing the total ordered F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter jets to 20.
Although the collective cost of these 20 jets remained unknown, the Pentagon’s Modernized Selected Acquisition Report (MSAR)–cleared for public release on 3 August, 2026–has now revealed the total contract value at USD $4.059 billion.
Notably, the per-unit price of the F-35s Singapore purchased cannot be accurately calculated from the total contract value because the figure published by the MSAR covers aircraft, engines, training, and support, among other things.
Since Singapore has limited strategic depth and depends on open sea lanes, its defense doctrine prioritizes a technological edge, deterrence through quality rather than quantity, and close interoperability with key partners—above all the United States. The F-35 package will help the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) modernize as it retires its aging F-16s and complements the existing F-15SG fleet, making the massive investment tenable.
Singapore maintains cooperation with nearly all ASEAN states, has no major disputes with any country, including the dominant regional player China, and is not a claimant to the South China Sea, unlike many of its peers in Southeast Asia. However, it remains concerned about the rapidly evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific, prompting a comprehensive military modernization.
Singapore’s Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen earlier warned that the threat of a conflict has become “non-zero” in the next decade, emphasizing that the country needed to strengthen its combat posture. Separately, speaking of the F-35, he said that aircraft, when operational, will elevate Singapore’s air force to the “premier league.”
Singapore is one of the very few countries to have purchased both F-35A and F-35B fighters, alongside the US, Italy, and Japan.
Singapore most likely selected the F-35B because the jet can take off fully loaded and land vertically on a 600-foot runway. Military analysts have also noted that acquiring a Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft would reduce the RSAF’s dependence on long runways, thereby reducing the risk that an attack on one of its airfields could permanently cripple operations, as previously explained by the EurAsian Times.
The acquisition of F-35Bs was supposed to give the RSAF the operational agility and resilience needed for dispersed or constrained operations, while the F-35As were to offer greater endurance and payload needed for air dominance.
However, in an unanticipated development, Singapore plans to split the two variants and base them on different continents.
Diverse But Split-Up F-35 Fleet
The MSAR reveals a striking basing arrangement: All 12 F-35B aircraft will be permanently based at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, US, whereas all eight F-35A variants will be based at Tengah Air Base, Singapore. Thus, creating a deliberate split.
The first four F-35Bs are scheduled to arrive at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in the fourth quarter of U.S. fiscal year 2026. The remaining eight F-35Bs are due around 2028. The eight F-35As are slated for delivery about 2029–30, when Tengah’s main operating base is expected to be ready.
This will establish Arkansas as the permanent center for Singapore’s F-35 force development, and is noteworthy because Ebbing serves as the primary continental training hub for international F-35 operators.
Stationing the F-35Bs at Ebbing will give them large, unrestricted training airspace and allow pilots to access experienced US instructors and other F-35 partner nations. Additionally, it will enable high-tempo flying and give Singapore’s crew access to complex multinational tactics that are difficult to replicate in the country due to air constraints.
Experts believe that training alongside American instructors and other foreign operators can help develop standard operating procedures for mission planning, maintenance, and rearming across a growing fifth-generation coalition network.
The first F-35A jets meant for Singapore will be delivered by 2029 and will be based at the Main Operating Base at Tengah, Singapore. The F-35A jets, with longer range, higher payload, and better endurance, will give Singapore a credible, ready fifth-generation presence in the region for day-to-day deterrence and response. It will allow the RSAF to modernize its aging F-16 fleet and give the island state a sovereign stealth capability.
However, Singapore would have to upgrade the facility’s infrastructure, including building specialized hangars, secure support areas, and other fifth-generation infrastructure, to accommodate the F-35A fighters.
This split in basing will create a geographically distributed force, with training and surge capacity in the US, and forward combat capability in Singapore.
Analysts view this as a deliberate choice that maximizes long-term capability and peacetime proficiency while still fielding a modern stealth force in Singapore.
However, this arrangement may have some of its own disadvantages.
For one, Singapore will field only 8 F-35 fighters, which means most of its stealth fleet would be thousands of kilometers away in a sudden crisis, creating a numerical constraint on the RSAF’s ability to respond rapidly.
Additionally, relocating the jets to Singapore would take considerable time because of diplomatic clearances, aerial refueling, complex coordination, and the need for support teams, among other factors. Therefore, in a fast-moving regional contingency, the aircraft might arrive too late to influence the opening phase of a conflict.
Moreover, basing these F-35Bs in Arkansas deepens Singapore’s reliance on the United States. Any shift in American priorities, capacity constraints, or policy changes could disrupt RSAF training and operations.
At the same time, though, the country is already deeply linked with and dependent on the United States, as it operates F-15SG (a tailored variant of the F-15E Eagle), Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopters, CH-47 Chinook helicopters, C-130H Hercules, and Gulfstream G550 Airborne Early Warning (G550-AEW), among other US weapon systems. Additionally, it has been cleared to buy the P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft earlier this year.
For a small state whose strategy rests on quality, deterrence, and alliance interoperability, the trade-off- superior training and some geographic dispersion in exchange for reduced immediate regional mass- might appear acceptable to the city-state.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
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