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Countries interested in buying F-5E jets, report says

Four countries are interested in buying Taiwan's outdated F-5E warplanes, but Taipei needs approval from Washington to sell the jets to foreign countries, a newspaper said yesterday.

The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) quoting an unnamed source, said the Philippines, Mexico, Paraguay and Chile are interested.

"Taiwan used to have about 300 F-5Es, but the US keeps strict control on the weapons it has sold to foreign countries so as not to tip the regional military balance. As such, even though these F-5Es are Taiwan's property, Taiwan still needs approval from the US," the paper quoted the source as saying.

The military is still evaluating potential deals, the source added.

The Ministry of National Defense yesterday declined to comment.

The US began selling F-5Es, made by Northrop Corp, to Taiwan in 1968 to boost Taiwan's defenses against China and in 1973 licensed Taiwan to manufacture F-5Es.

Taiwan still has about 100 F-5Es, which have been either mothballed or are being used as training jets by the Air Force.

During the Cold War, F-5Es were widely used as their capabilities were comparable to those of the Soviet MiG-21. But Taiwan has little use for them now because its Air Force also has 150 F-16 A/Bs, 60 Mirage 2000-5s and 130 locally-made Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF).

The Air Force has also begun to plan for its third-generation warplanes and is seeking to buy 66 advanced Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighter aircraft to replace its aging fleet of fighter planes.
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