The defense secretary’s announcement that the United States would allow Qatar to build an air force facility in Idaho was “in the works for years” and mirrors accommodations made for a handful of other allies in the country, a U.S. Air Force spokesperson told Military Times on Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday during a meeting at the Pentagon with his Qatari counterpart, Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, that Mountain Home Air Force Base “will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training [and] increase the lethality, interoperability.”
After criticism from prominent figures in the GOP’s MAGA base, including right-wing personality Laura Loomer, Qatar’s media attaché to the U.S. later clarified that a stand-alone Qatari air base would not exist, reiterating that Qatar will have a facility at an existing U.S. base.
U.S. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said the service notified Congress about its intent to make a Foreign Military Sale to Qatar in 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first term. An environmental assessment was made in 2022 at Mountain Home Air Force Base, where Singapore already has an F-15 training facility that was established in 2009, Stefanek added.
Mountain Home is not the only Air Force base on American soil with facilities owned and operated by foreign allies.
The Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program on Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas hosts allies, including Germany, Italy, Norway and the Netherlands. Singapore has another facility on Luke Air Force Base in Arizona that will soon move to Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas, according to the U.S. Air Force.
“They pay for it, and we build it and secure it,” Stefanek said.
Military leaders held a ribbon cutting for the new facility at Ebbing in September 2024. The international Foreign Military Sales F-35 pilot training center is being funded and occupied by allies, including Poland, Finland, Singapore and Germany, with Poland graduating its first pilots from the training center in May of this year.
City and local military officials in Mountain Home, Idaho, held a news conference Tuesday to address questions about last week’s announcement of a new Qatar Emiri Air Force training facility at the nearby base.
“I think the key word here is ‘hosting.’ We are excited to host the Qataris and partner with the Mountain Home Air Force Base,” Col. Michael A. Perez, commander of the 366th Maintenance Group at the base, told reporters. “This is nothing new; this has been in the works as far back as 2017.”
City representatives and U.S. military officials visited Qatar in May 2023 to discuss the Qatari Air Force’s needs and expectations, Mountain Home Mayor Rich Sykes said.