The first batch of Republic of Singapore Air Force personnel, along with their families, arrived last month at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to establish the operations that will qualify all Singaporean F-15SG aircrews in coming years. The first F-15SGs are expected to arrive in April 2009, around which time Mountain Home will activate the 428th Fighter Squadron as the US-led training unit for the Singaporeans. (The 428th formerly served at Cannon AFB, N.M., as an F-16 training unit for Singapore forces.) Eventually Mountain Home will host 10 F-15SGs and approximately 179 RSAF active duty personnel and 128 support personnel with their families. Mountain Home provides a “world-class range complex, excellent year-round weather for flying, existing first rate support facilities, and highly trained personnel” for initial and continuation training for the Singaporeans, said Lt. Col. Andrew Kerkman, chief of assessments for the base’s 366th Fighter Wing. Singapore placed an order with Boeing for its first F-15SGs in 2005. (Mountain Home report by A1C Samantha S. Crane)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.