The Pentagon will build a facility for the Qatar air force at an Idaho air base, the defense secretary announced on Friday. The arrangement appears to flow from earlier agreements related to the 2017 sale of Boeing F-15Q combat jets to the Gulf monarchy, but the scope of the project, its cost and financing, and Congressional buy-in remain unclear.
“Today, we’re announcing we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home air base in Idaho,” Hegseth said during a morning appearance with Qatari Defense Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the Pentagon. Hegseth made the announcement after thanking his counterpart for Qatar’s role as mediators in the Israel-Gaza war.
Seven hours later, Hegseth’s X account tweeted, “Important clarification:…Qatar will not have their own base in the United States—nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”
Asked for further detail, the Office of the Secretary of Defense wrote an email: “Facilities Construction and Operational Support for Qatari F-15 Aircraft at Mountain Home Air Force Base was executed via foreign military sales, will enable the construction and operational integration of an enduring location for Qatari F-15 aircraft at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.”
Requests for clarification went unanswered by press time.
The email continued, “The establishment of an enduring location for Qatari F-15 aircraft at Mountain Home Air Force Base provides Qatar with strategic flexibility to operate and sustain their advanced fighter aircraft. It will enable combined training opportunities between Qatar and the United States, fostering stronger defense partnerships and enhancing joint operational capabilities.”
In 2017, the U.S. agreed to sell Qatar 36 F-15Q combat jets, along with “their associated weapons systems, U.S.-based training, maintenance support equipment and logistics support,” Stars & Stripes wrote in 2022, when the jets began to be delivered.
“Now Qatar is ready to begin plans for the U.S.-based training,” said the Stripes article, citing an interview with Lt. Col. Peter Yule, who was the director of the base’s Wing Integration Office. “New housing units and a dormitory would be built on the base for the Qatari forces. Yule says the buildings would likely include a two-story dormitory and 90 single-family units. Some Qatari trainees would be able to bring their families to live on base.”
The cost hadn’t been set, Yule said, but officials were “currently talking in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“It’s a large project, between all the different projects that have to happen: building them a new operations facility, a new hangar and maintenance facility, obviously the housing, and then just to expand the footprint,” he said.
This goes far beyond most of the aviation-training arrangements that the United States has with allies and foreign allies. But Singapore, at least, has kept aircraft at Mountain Home since 2009.
It was not clear on Friday how the new facility Hegseth was talking about related to the earlier planning.
His announcement was condemned by some of President Donald Trump’s America-first loyalists as a security risk. A Democratic Party social-media account implied that the new facility was part of a corrupt quid pro quo.
But Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told reporters on the sidelines of Air Force chief of staff Gen. David Allvin’s retirement ceremony on Friday that he supported the arrangement, which he viewed as justified by the U.S. military’s decades-long use of a giant air base west of the Qatari capital.
“We’ve been operating out of Al Udeid Air Base,” Bacon said. “I think it’s probably a good thing. I believe in alliances.”
The move also raised questions among national-security experts, who underscored the need for Congressional buy-in.
Katherine Kuzminski, the director of studies at the Center for a New American Security think tank, said that it is “rare” for the Pentagon to build a facility for another military on U.S. soil.
She added that while the administration can set the tone for foreign policy, Congress needs a say.
“Congress plays a significant role in funding, authorizing, and overseeing decisions from the executive branch regarding both basing decisions and international military training and education to ensure that security cooperation programs align with U.S. national security and foreign policy goals,” Kuzminski said.
The announcement is the latest move by the Trump administration to deepen its military relationship with Qatar. Last month, Trump signed an executive order saying the U.S. would protect the “security and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar against external attack.” This summer, the president accepted a Boeing 747 luxury jet to be converted into Air Force One. The Air Force shifted funds from its Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program as part of the 747’s transformation into the presidential aircraft.
