by Chris Pocock
Here at the Singapore Airshow the host nation is poised on a range of defense aircraft purchases which has the OEMs vying for position, displaying their wares.
For example Singapore will soon decide on a replacement for its 30-year old fleet of Super Puma helicopters, but speculation about a purchase of Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is seemingly premature.
As for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, the island state continues to send mixed signals on when it might commit to the stealth fighter, and which variant it will buy.
In an email interview with AIN, Maj Gen Hoo Cher Moo, commander of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) said that suitable, cost-effective replacements for the Super Pumas are currently being evaluated. Alongside the larger Chinooks, they have featured in some of the RSAF’s humanitarian and disaster relief (HADR) operations. There have been more of these in the past two years than in the preceding four years combined. These included the missing Malaysian Boeing 777 (MH370) and crashed Air Asia Boeing 737; flood relief in Kelantan, Malaysia; earthquake relief in Nepal and Sabah, Malaysia; and fire-fighting in Sumatra, Indonesia.
The RSAF’s Fokker 50s have been providing maritime surveillance since 1995, and have also contributed to the recent HADR operations. “We will continue to operate them for as long as it is operationally and economically feasible,” Moo said. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy deploys ships and P-8 Poseidons to Singapore, from where they have operated close to the islands and reefs in the South China Sea that China is controversially building and claiming.
Read the full story at AINonline