As usual, the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is showing examples of just about every aircraft in its inventory at the Singapore Airshow this year, although the C-130 Hercules and Fokker 50 Maritime Patrol Aircraft are missing.
Singapore's air force chief, Major General Kelvin Khong, said in a pre-show statement that “if either side in the Russia-Ukraine War had achieved air superiority, the conflict…would not have been so long and protracted.”
Regarding new security threats, such as loitering munitions and small, low-cost uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV)—some of them off-the-shelf commercial drones adapted as attack weapons—Khong said the RSAF will require innovative solutions with rapid prototyping. At the Singapore Aerospace Technology and Engineering Conference (SATEC) conference this week, Timothy Yap, the RSAF head of air engineering and logistics, said that the service had trialed “swarming drones” at the recent Forging Sabre exercise.
The RSAF celebrated its 55th anniversary last September with an open house at Paya Lebar airbase, hence the colored tail of the Boeing F-15SG on display. Close by, two Lockheed Martin F-16Ds are on display. The RSAF designated the one with conformal fuel tanks as F-16D+. It has additional antennas and carries a Rafael Litening targeting pod and the navigation pod from the Lockheed Martin LANTIRN (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night) system on the starboard and port sides, respectively.
The RSAF’s 60 F-16 fighters are being upgraded to F-16V standard with an AESA radar, modular mission computers, new guided bombs, and various new avionics. The F-16s based at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona for training are now returning to Singapore for F-16V modification by ST Aerospace, in a swap with jets that have already undergone conversion. Luke is just one of several overseas training bases for the RSAF, but the aircraft at Luke are moving to Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 2026. F-15 pilots train at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Meanwhile, an agreement to use Anderson AFB on Guam for a permanent fighter detachment has recently been concluded. Closer to home, Singapore has paid Thailand to refurbish and enlarge a small airbase at Nam Phong for use by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
The RSAF confirmed a purchase of four F-35B STOVL versions in 2020 and reserved an option for eight more. The quartet will initially remain in the U.S. for training. Interest in a plan to operate them from a home-built Joint Multi Mission Ship (JMMS) that would also house helicopters has waned. ST Engineering no longer displays a model of its JMMS at these shows.
Making its debut at this year’s show, a Boeing CH-47F is replacing older CH-47Ds in the RSAF inventory. Nearby sits a Boeing AH-64D Apache. In his latest comments, Major General Khong announced a life extension program for the fleet. The Airbus Helicopters H225M on display also is relatively new and has now completely replaced the vintage AS332M Super Pumas.
The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron 1 and Elbit H450 are once again on display, but the RSAF has not brought its latest UAV, the Aeronautics Orbiter 4, a VTOL vehicle in the Group 2 size class but with Group 4 ISR capabilities. The Singapore Armed Forces has also acquired the indigenous Veloce 15 VTOL UAV, which is displayed on the ST Engineering stand.
The only ground-based air defense (GBAD) system on display, the MBDA/Thales Aster 30, attained full operational capability recently. At the 55th anniversary airshow, the RSAF displayed a range of GBAD systems such as the RBS-70 and the Rafael/IAI SPYDER (Surface-to-air Python and Derby) missile systems, the Lockheed Martin FPS-117 long-range radar, the Thales SHIKRA (System for Hybrid Interceptor Knowledge of Recognised Air), and the IAI Elta ELM-2084 multi-mission radar.
This last radar is usually associated with Israel’s Iron Dome counter rocket artillery and mortar (C-RAM) system. The closest that Singapore has come to acknowledging the acquisition of the now-famous system appeared in the 2016 annual report of the country’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA). It reported that “the island-wide Short-Range Anti-Munition Capability was operationalized within a networked system to enhance the overall island air defense capability.”
Finally, in keeping with this show’s green emphasis, Yap said the RSAF had flown an F-16 on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and would like to extend the trial to other aircraft. But SAF presents cost and availability issues, he added.