The Ministry of National Defense yesterday denied that senior officials had indicated during bilateral security talks in the US earlier this month that Taiwan could substantially lower the number of F-16C/D aircraft it seeks to procure from the US.
Citing unnamed military sources, the Chinese-language China Times and Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported that Deputy Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖) and National Security Council (NSC) Deputy Secretary-General Lu Hsiao-jung (陸小榮) had proposed during the annual US-Taiwan strategic dialogue meetings that Taiwan only acquire a squadron of 24 F-16C/Ds — far fewer than the 66 aircraft Taiwan has been seeking to procure since 2006.
Commonly known as the Monterey Talks, the meetings serve as a platform for Taiwanese and US officials to discuss bilateral defense issues, including arms sales.
According to the articles, the decision was made after the ministry concluded it could not afford both the procurement of 66 new aircraft and the retrofit of 146 F-16A/Bs currently in service.
The upgrade package, worth about US$5.2 billion, was notified to US Congress in September last year. The letter of offer and acceptance for the first part of the upgrade program, worth US$3.7 billion, was signed on July 13 during a meeting between Taiwanese and US officials in Washington. Retrofit work is scheduled to begin in 2016 and will last until 2028, with the first upgraded aircraft to be delivered in 2021.
So far Washington has turned down all attempts by Taipei to purchase the more advanced F-16C/D.
Responding to the reports, ministry spokesman Major-General David Lo (羅紹和) told a press conference yesterday that there had “absolutely been no such proposal.”
The NSC also denied the reports, saying that procurement decisions regarding the F-16 were the responsibility of the Air Force and the ministry. The Air Force also confirmed that no meetings had been held with the US on the F-16C/D issue.
The F-16A/B upgrade program occurs at a time when a number of aging aircraft are to be decommissioned, creating a shortfall for the Air Force. According to a Defense News last month, 56 Mirage 2000 and 45 near-obsolete F-5 fighters will soon be retired, bringing the fleet down from 373 aircraft to 272 by 2020, or 146 F-16A/Bs and 126 F-CK-1 Indigenous Defense Fighters, which are also undergoing mid-life upgrades since last year.
The number 24 is not a coincidence, as defense experts say this is the very minimum number of new aircraft that Taiwan must acquire to mitigate the impact of the looming fighter shortage.
US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond--Chambers, who is closely involved with the F-16 issue, said last month that 24 F-16A/Bs at a time would be pulled from front-line service during the upgrade program.
Industry sources say new F-16C/Ds could be delivered faster — as many as three years — than the upgraded F-16A/Bs.
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
SELF-SUFFICIENCY: The project would only be the beginning, as Taiwan needs at least 120 satellites to ensure uninterrupted communication, Wu Tsung-tsong said The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) yesterday said it plans to launch six low Earth orbit satellites starting in 2026 as part of the government’s plan to boost the resilience of the nation’s communications. The development of the technology gained attention after Ukrainians were able to access the Internet through Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service, despite their infrastructure being severely damaged in the war with Russia. Two of the satellites would be built by the government, while four would involve cooperation between TASA and private contractors. “Over the past 30 years, the satellite technology in Taiwan has
PLAN: Nations would receive US$5m a year if they could advance Taiwan’s international participation, diversify supply chains away from China or counter Beijing’s influence The US House of Representatives Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the US and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Friday introduced a bill that would approve US$120 million to be spent on supporting Taiwan’s international space and tackling coercion by China. The bipartisan legislation — the Taiwan Allies Fund Act — was proposed ahead of the inauguration of president-elect William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on May 20. The committee said in a statement that the bill “strengthens Taiwan’s global network of friends by authorizing [US]$120 million over three years for the State Department and USAID [US Agency