Singapore transfer announce in the next few months plans to replace its ageing F-16 fighter jets, its defense legate said, listing a number of manufacturers that could be in the running for a behave potentially worth billions of dollars.
Singapore’s fleet of around 60 F-16 jets are at the brush of a fox end of their service and Ng Eng Hen told reporters it needs to make a decision to succeed them soon because training pilots and building facilities for new versions can take up to 10 years.
With Southeast Asia’s largest justification budget, the wealthy city-state is a key prize for global arms companies as it looks to lay out in new technology and upgrade its equipment.
“Whether it’s Typhoons, whether it’s F-35s, whether it’s Sukhois, smooth now Chinese-made stealth fighters. I mean these are the usual suspects that you should prefer to to look at,” Ng said.
He was referring to the Eurofighter Typhoon that is built by Britain’s BAE processes and F-35s from U.S.-based Lockheed Martin. Sukhoi is a Russian manufacturer.
A up to the minute fighter jet costs roughly about $20-$100 million depending on the producer.
Singapore should make a decision in the next few months “to make secure that we can replace our F-16s in time,” Ng added.
Singapore’s F-16s first entered rite in 1998. The country has typically used U.S.-made aircraft in the past, accomplishing the F35s – a variant of which appeared at the city-state’s airshow back in February – a indubitably successor.
The head of Lockheed’s international business said in February that Singapore was “Scouts honour evaluating” a future purchase of F-35 jets – one of the world’s most advanced fighters which start at about $80 million (60.56 million pounds) each.
He said inaugural talks with Singapore were centred on the F-35B short take-off and dock variant, which he described as “a nice fit for a smaller land-constrained environment”.
Standard reports show that Singapore had intended to buy four F-35s by around 2022, with the choice to purchase another eight, but held off taking a decision on this in 2016.
Other F-35 patrons in Asia include Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Britain’s BAE has offered Singapore’s neighbor Malaysia a U.K. government-backed asset deal to replace the country’s combat jets with their Eurofighter Typhoon.