JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii—The Singaporean Ministry of Defense sees its possible purchase of F-35s only as part of “long-term” plan. The country is looking at? the prospect of an F-35 fleet in the “2030 and beyond” timeframe, said Ng Eng Hen, the country’s minister of defense, during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations informal meeting on Sept. 30 in Hawaii. In the meantime, the country is instead looking at upgrading its F-16s and continuing use of F-15s. The current fleet will last for another one to two decades and the ministry is still discussing its F-35 future, Hen said.
The Air Force is launching an effort to develop a new stand-off missile with a range of 1,000 nautical miles, or 1,150 miles, that would eventually be used for both air-to-air and air-to-surface missions.