Singapore to get advanced fighter jets

Press, 10 July 1985, Page 10

Singapore to get advanced fighter jets

NZPA-Reuter Washington In a move to improve United States security in South-East Asia the Reagan Administration told Congress yesterday that it intended to sell improved Fighting Falcon fighterbombers to Singapore. Unless Congress vetoes the move within 30 days the United States will sell Singapore eight of the supersonic jets with Pratt and Whitney FlOO engines for SUS2BO million ($599 million). The Defence Department announcement of the sale referred to Singapore’s strategic position on the primary route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans controlling the oil lifeline from the Middle to the Far East. In April the Administration announced plans to sell 12 Fighting Falcons to Thailand, emphasising that it needed the aircraft to counter Soviet-made MiG23s based in Vietnam.

The proposal passed Congress unscathed. Previous United States policy had been to offer for sale only the simpler Fl6/79 export version of the aircraft, with a General Electric J 79 engine, to allies in South-East Asia. But when the deal was made with Thailand, Singapore requested the improved version of the eight aircraft, which it had agreed earlier to buy. The FI6A/B version of the Fighting Falcon is in service with the United States of America and 10 other air arms. Yesterday’s announcement called Singapore a friendly country and a force for peace and regional security in South-East Asia. “Singapore’s strategic location astride the narrow entrance to the Strait of Malacca commands the primary route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, one of the world’s busiest waterways,” the Defence Department said.