Singapore puts off decision on ‘whether to buy Lockheed’s F-35’

Bloomberg

Singapore has put on hold a decision to buy as many as 12 of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jets, according to information from the Pentagon’s program office.
The island nation’s permanent secretary of defense development informed the US in mid-June that it was delaying final steps toward purchasing four of the fighters by about 2022, with an option to buy eight more, according to the information presented to Pentagon officials last month as part of their regular reviews of the costliest weapons program.
While Singapore gave no indication of when it might revive efforts to buy the F-35, the US continues to encourage the Asian city-state to buy the fighter. “We welcome Singapore’s interest in purchasing the F-35 aircraft,” President Barack Obama said in opening remarks at a White House press conference last week with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In December 2014, Singapore submitted a “letter of request” to the U.S. formally seeking information on purchasing the F-35, and it followed up in early 2015 by indicating it wanted the most complex model, the F-35B. Intended for short takeoffs and vertical landings on unimproved airstrips, the F-35B was designed for use by the U.S. Marine Corps and has already been ordered by the U.K. and Italy.
The U.S. made a policy decision earlier this year allowing Singapore to
integrate a data link and radio that it
developed into its jets if purchased,
according to the Pentagon’s F-35 program office.
Singapore isn’t a primary participant in the $379 billion F-35 program. The Pentagon plans to buy 2,443 jets for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, while foreign partners currently plan to buy 612. Belgium, Poland, Finland, Spain also might include F-35s in future competitions, the Congressional Research Service said last month.
Singapore has “been uncertain on the F-35 for years,” said Richard Aboulafia, a military aircraft analyst for the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. “As a ‘security cooperation partner’ they were never as fully committed as the primary partners,” he said in an e-mail.