Idaho Air Force base will host a Qatari F-15 training unit

The Qatari Emeri Air Force will build a facility at on Idaho Air Base, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday. Qatar will station F-15s and pilots at the U.S. base, he said.

Hgeseth announced the unit at the Pentagon with Qatari Defense Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. Hegseth said that the United States signed a letter of acceptance to build a facility for Qatar’s air force at Mountain Home Air Force Base, which is about an hour south Boise. Qatari pilots will learn to fly F-15QAs with American crews.

Though the plan drew initial shock and some anger from political pundits, plans for a Qatari detachment at Mountain Home date to at least 2022, according to the Idaho Statesman newspaper. And at least one other country has long trained its F-15 pilots at the base. Singapore has maintained a joint training unit with the 428th Fighter Squadron at Mountain Home since 2009.

“You can count on us,” Hegseth told his Qatari counterpart at the Pentagon.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with Qatari Defense Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Oct. 10, 2025. hoto by Diyar Guldogan/Anadolu via Getty Images

Neither defense official said how many F-15s or Qatari personnel would be assigned to the new facility.

Though the new facility was being referred to by some media as a Qatari “base,” no foreign nation has its own base inside the United States. Some foreign militaries maintain training units and facilities on U.S. bases, or assign personnel to U.S. units as part of cooperation agreements. Ukrainian F-16 pilots have been training at an Air National Guard base in Tucson, Arizona since 2023.

After several pundits expressed concerns over the deal, thinking that Qatar was establishing its own base inside the U.S., Hegseth posted an “important clarification” on X.

“The U.S. military has a long-standing partnership w/ Qatar, including today’s announced cooperation w/ F-15QA aircraft,” Hegseth wrote. “However, to be clear, 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.”

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Speaking with Al-Thani, the secretary called the agreement with Qatar “another example of our partnership.”

Qatar is home to the Al Udeid Air Base, the hub of U.S. airpower in the region for most of the last two decades. President Donald Trump announced an executive order guaranteeing the country’s security — terms usually reserved for NATO allies — after Israeli jets struck targeted Hamas envoys inside the country.

The Qatari government also signed over a Boeing 747 to the Air Force earlier this year after President Donald Trump expressed a desire to use it as a new Air Force One. The Air Force confirmed it had started modifying the plane last month, though its delivery schedule is unclear.

Update: 10/10/2025; This story has been updated following Hegseth’s social media post outlining the nature of the agreement.