Qatar to Build Air Force Facility in Idaho

Qatar is planning to build a new air force facility in the United States in the near future — specifically at Idaho's Mountain Home Air Force Base.

The base is already home to fighter planes from another foreign country, and has a storied history of defending the U.S.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a "Qatari Emiri Air Force facility" will be built at the base, which will host Qatar's F-15 jets and pilots.

Hegseth made the announcement alongside his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The announcement ignited several questions about how it'll work and what Americans can expect.

Will Qatar have a military base in Idaho?

Qatar's facility at Mountain Home will not be a traditional military base. Instead it will be within a U.S. air base and under U.S. jurisdiction, Axios' Dave Lawler reports.

The facility will be built from the ground up and used to help train Qatari pilots.

"The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability. It's just another example of our partnership," Hegseth said.

The decision is another sign of a deepening relationship between Qatar and the United States after Trump extended unprecedented security guarantee to Qatar earlier this month.

The United States has discussed the facility with Qatar over the last several years, Axios reported.

Qatar placed a $12 billion order with the U.S. for 36 of the F-15 fighter jets in 2017.

However, the country's airspace is small and its terrain mostly flat desert — limiting the ability to train pilots for various scenarios, a source familiar with the deal told Axios.

What is Idaho's Mountain Home Airbase?

The base is located in southwestern Idaho in the town of Mountain Home, which sits within Elmore County and is roughly 50 miles southeast of Boise.

Roughly 5,100 military and civilians, as well as 3,500 family members, reside at the base, per its website.

It primarily hosts the Air Combat Command's 366th Fighter Wing.

The base's mission? "Provide mission-ready Gunfighters to conduct military operations anytime, anywhere," according to a fact sheet.

Mountain Home and its squadrons

The Mountain Home's 366th Fighter Wing has existed since World War II. Following the war, the group deactivated but later officially joined the Air Force in 1953, the website says.

Now, the wing includes more than 50 F-15E Strike Eagles, an all-weather strike vehicle.

Mountain Home AFB is also home to three squadrons:

The 389th Fighter Squadron (Thunderbolts).

The 391st Fighter Squadron (Tigers).

The Republic of Singapore 428th Fighter Squadron (Buccaneers).

The 726th Air Control Squadron and the 266th Range Squadron are also tenants of the base.

Many compared the Qatar deal to how the base currently hosts Singapore's F-15SG aircraft.

Singapore's air force arrived at the base in 2008, with the fighter vehicles first appearing a year later.

The 390th Electronic Combat Squadron (Wild Boars) — which is located at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington — are a geographically separated unit tied to the 366th.

Mountain Home and the "Gunfighter" nickname

The 366th Fighter Wing has a nickname — "Gunfighter," which stems from 1967 when the group was stationed at Da Nang Air Base, Vietnam.

At the time, pilots couldn't shoot down enemies "because the missiles were ineffective at short ranges," a Mountain Home fact sheet says, which led to pilots innovating by mounting new gun pods and developing tactics that led to kills.

The wing was later given the Presidential Unit Citation by President Lyndon B. Johnson and the nickname of "Gunfighters."