The US military is moving forward with plans to build a dedicated facility in Idaho to train pilots from Qatar, an important US ally in the Middle East, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Friday.
Hegseth, who made the announcement during a visit by Qatari Minister of Defense Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, said the facility is to be built at the Mountain Home Air Force Base, and would “host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase the lethality, interoperability.”
“It’s just another example of our partnership, and I hope you know, your excellency, that you can count on us,” Hegseth said.
Photo: Reuters
The arrangement is not unusual. Pentagon officials said that similar facilities have been set up for other allies for decades, and the Idaho base already hosts a fighter squadron from Singapore.
However, the news drew a sharp rebuke from US President Donald Trump’s close ally, the right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who called the plan “an abomination” and said the Qataris are associated with Islamic terror organizations.
“No foreign country should have a military base on US soil. Especially Islamic countries,” Loomer wrote in one of several social media posts just hours after Hegseth’s announcement.
Although Loomer holds no formal position within the Trump administration, her online complaints have a history of achieving results. Her criticisms have led to the firing of officials on the US National Security Council, Vinay Prasad, director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research — the agency’s top vaccine regulator — and General Tim Haugh, director of the US National Security Agency.
Qatar, which hosts the biggest US military base in the Middle East, made clear that it would not have a base on US soil and would cover the construction the training costs.
“This will not be a Qatari air base,” a spokesman for the Qatari embassy in Washington wrote on X. “Rather, Qatar has made an initial 10-year commitment to construct and maintain a dedicated facility within an existing US air base, intended for advanced training and to enhance interoperability in defending and advancing our shared interests around the world.”
The statement said the project would create hundreds of jobs for Americans, adding that the planning began several years ago, and it received local approval.
The announcement comes just days after Trump signed an executive order vowing to use all measures, including US military action, to defend Qatar.
Qatar also donated a US$400 million jumbo jet to Trump for use as Air Force One.
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