The Qatar Thing
By 
Approximately every human being on the planet has been texting me about the Qatar air base story:
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the Pentagon has agreed to host a new Qatari Emiri Air Force facility in Idaho, saying that the nation has played a “core part” in securing the Gaza peace deal.
Hegseth made the announcement during an enhanced honor cordon arrival ceremony at the Pentagon for Qatar’s Minister of Defense Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
“Today, we’re announcing a letter of acceptance in building a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho,” Hegseth said.
Qatar is a small country that has purchase extremely fast, extremely expensive fighter jets. In this Qatar is similar to Singapore, which… also has an airbase in Idaho.
The U.S. Army Flight Training Detachment includes six Army National Guard pilots who fly with RSAF pilots. The arrangement is one of several arrangements the RSAF has with the U.S. military. RSAF pilots rotate through the training station in Arizona to train in desert environments and alongside U.S. pilots.
“It’s the best job I’ve had in the Army by far,” said Denton. “It’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of uniqueness to working with other countries. It’s rewarding to break through those cultural barriers, and you can see the smile on their faces when they go out and accomplish something.”
While at the OCTC, Denton said RSAF pilots conducted individual and crew-level qualifications and worked with Marine Joint Terminal Attack Controllers to simulate providing close air support. Each engagement is recorded, allowing crews to review their training run while receiving real-time feedback from senior pilots, master gunners and range personnel.
So… it is not an arrangement without precedent. It is true that there are a variety of fishy things going on with Trump’s relationship with Qatar (and some of those are manifesting in the effort to broker an Israel-Hamas deal), and it is quite possible that this represents a payoff for Qatar. But it’s not nearly as surprising or alarming when you appreciate why countries that have basically no airspace might want to conduct training in Idaho, which has rather a substantial amount of airspace.
That said, fun to watch MAGA freak:
Photo Credit:By Airwolfhound from Hertfordshire, UK – F-15QA, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151156385