MAJ Sivaraj said he is looking forward to the next stage of the exercise involving more assets participating simultaneously, and seeing how his fourth-generation jet can integrate with the F-35.
“But from how we have seen the F-35s fly, they’re really capable aircraft. They bring a significant advantage in the mission and they are a key enabler to some of the missions that we are going to be doing in this exercise,” he said.
“It was quite exciting to fly together with them on the same side, and also against them to understand how they’re fighting and their capabilities.”
The RSAF fighter jets, however, will not be showing off their firepower. COL Tan confirmed that they will not use their weapons – be they live or inert – due to “local constraints”.
“When we go overseas, we always drop ordinance – inert, live, general-purpose bombs to laser-guided weapons to precision weapons. So, we try to exercise the full range of weapons we have available to us,” he said.
“So while we have put a request to employ weapons in this year’s exercise, we are unable to do so.”