As the location for the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, Chaffee Crossing is already home to more than 800 students from around the world who are training for medical careers. Now residential and multifamily developers have something new to cheer about as construction is underway on a new, $70 million F-35 academic training center expected to be complete in 18 months.

A ceremonial groundbreaking on May 6, 2026 marked this new, exciting chapter in making this international training center a reality. The cost for the entire project and facilities expansion at Ebbing is estimated to be more than $800 million. The training center will house classrooms and four F-35 simulators that will provide extensive and sometimes “classified environments” for pilot training.

U.S. Senator John Boozman and U.S. Representative Steve Womack as well as Fort Smith Mayor George McGill were present at the groundbreaking along with officials from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Ebbing Air National Guard Base was selected in 2023 as the base for the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) pilot training center. As the premier location for residential and multifamily developments in Western Arkansas, Chaffee Crossing is expected to welcome new residents from across the world as hundreds of military personnel and their families from Singapore, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, and Finland will be moving into the region to gain experience and expertise on the F-35 fighter planes.

It is expected that the largest group will be from Singapore with approximately 400 personnel projected. The base will house and train military from Singapore on their growing fleet of both F-16’s and F-35’s.

This influx of international personnel will provide significant opportunities for commercial and retail developers to provide the stores, restaurants and entertainment venues that will be needed to sustain Chaffee Crossing’s reputation for offering the best quality-of-life amenities in the Fort Smith region.