MELBOURNE, Australia — Singapore commemorated 10 years of its Boeing F-15 training program in the U.S. during an Oct. 11 ceremony, at which officials unveiled new artwork painted on one of the jets.
The ceremony was held at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho where the Republic of Singapore Air Force, or RSAF, maintains the Peace Carvin V F-15SG detachment. The event was officiated by Singapore’s senior minister of state for defense, Heng Chee How, and was hosted by the head of the service’s Air Combat Command, Brig. Gen. Ho Kum Luen.
Speaking at the event, Heng thanked the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command, Mountain Home Air Force Base and the resident 366th Fighter Wing “for being such a trusted partner and a gracious host.” He also called the Peace Carvin V detachment “the anchor of the RSAF’s F-15SG program, where we validate our war-fighting doctrines and qualify a steady flow of F-15SG pilots, weapon systems officers and instructors.”
The Peace Carvin V detachment is one of a number of RSAF training detachments in the United States. The 25-year agreement sees about 370 RSAF personnel assigned to the 428th Fighter Squadron at Mountain Home AFB, a joint squadron of the U.S. and Singaporean air forces.
The squadron, nicknamed the Buccaneers, also trained RSAF F-16 aircraft crews at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. That training detachment, known as Peace Carvin III, began in 1998 and lasted until 2005, after which Singapore brought the detachment’s F-16s back to the Asian nation, and the unit stood down before becoming the F-15SG squadron and relocating to Idaho.
Due to Singapore’s small size and lack of airspace available to train, the RSAF has ongoing long-term training agreements with several nations. The Peace Carvin training program started in the late 1980s under which Singapore trained its initial cadre of Lockheed Martin F-16A/B pilots and ground crew at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, which continues training Singapore’s F-16C/D crew up to this day under the Peace Carvin II program.
Singapore also has a Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopter training detachment based in Marana, Arizona, and previously maintained training detachments for its CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, KC-135 tanker aircraft and S-70B Seahawk naval helicopters at various locations in the United States. In addition, the RSAF also has aircraft and training detachments based in France and Australia.
Mike Yeo is the Asia correspondent for Defense News.
