Senior Airman Emmitt Niemi marshals an F-22 Raptor from the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Basa Air Base, Philippines, Aug. 8, 2024. (Edward Coddington/U.S. Air Force)
The Defense Department has announced additional improvements at a Philippine fighter base as part of an effort to deter China by rebuilding airfields across the Pacific.
A $32.9 million contract awarded to Acciona CMS Philippines LLC calls for a new parking apron, shoulders and taxiway at Cesar Basa Air Base by mid-2026, the Pentagon announced late last month.
In November, the U.S. and the Philippines completed a $24 million runway upgrade at the air base on the Philippines’ main island of Luzon.
The Pentagon has already paid $66 million for projects at Basa, including a warehouse and fuel storage tanks, the Philippine Inquirer reported Nov. 8.
The installation just south of the larger Clark Air Base is home to the Philippine air force’s 5th Fighter Wing and was built by the U.S. military at the start of World War II.
The base in June hosted U.S. forces involved in the Marine Aviation Support Activity exercise.
This month, Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters were there for another drill — Iron Blade — alongside Philippine FA-50PH fighters, the state-run Philippine News Agency reported Sunday.
F-22 Raptors from the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron park next to Philippine FA-50PH light jet fighters at Basa Air Base, Philippines, Aug. 8, 2024. (Edward Coddington/U.S. Air Force)
Images released by the Department of Defense show Raptors from the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Basa on Thursday. The unit is deployed to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
Six Raptors from the squadron were in Australia’s Northern Territory last month for the biennial Pitch Black airpower drills involving 140 aircraft and 4,400 personnel from 21 nations.
During that exercise, Pacific Air Forces’ commander, Gen. Kevin Schneider, discussed nearly $450 million of U.S.-funded base construction in the territory during a meeting with reporters at Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin.
The latest work at Basa, funded under the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, will include a 625,000-square-foot parking apron with room for 20 aircraft, USNI News reported Friday.
The initiative, established by Congress in fiscal 2021, aims to maintain America’s military advantage over China by modernizing and strengthening the U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific.
Naval Facilities Engineering Command is seeking proposals for at least three projects worth up to $15 billion combined and funded by the initiative in Australia’s Cocos Islands, the Philippines, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea, according to a June 26 bid solicitation.
The Basa renovations are among several projects at bases in the Philippines that American forces have access to under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA.
U.S. forces can operate from nine sites in the country, including four announced in February 2023 under the 2014 security pact.
