SINGAPORE—Singaporean defense prime ST Engineering has signed agreements with Airbus to provide support for the C295 and Embraer to support the C-390. 

This will see Singapore become a defense MRO hub, even though the Singapore military does not operate either transport.

The C295 announcement comes just a day after Airbus Defense and Space CEO Michael Schoellhorn shared his ambition to establish a defense MRO hub in the Asia-Pacific. Schoellhorn said he was looking to find a partner that can meet high standards in areas like staff training, quality and components management.

In a short announcement, Airbus says ST Engineering “will support the regional C295 fleets with depot-level maintenance and turnkey solutions at its existing facility in Singapore.”

The Singapore center will support C295 operators from Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.

Aviation Week Network's Fleet Discovery Military database shows there are 25 in-service C295 aircraft in the region, with five more on backlog.

Separately, Embraer is starting to lay groundwork in the Asia-Pacific region, establishing a memorandum of understanding with ST Engineering to explore collaboration in identified areas such as engineering, maintenance and support service activities for the C-390 Millennium.

Embraer had recently established a beachhead in Asia with the selection by South Korea to supply a reported three C-390s. The aircraft will be making a series of demo tours in Asia, including to Thailand, which has a long-term plan to replace the venerable C-130s.