The nation’s second squadron of Apache attack helicopters is likely to enter service later this year after the first squadron was commissioned last year by the Army Aviation and Special Forces Command, an army officer said yesterday.
After undergoing rigorous testing, the second Apache combat team is expected to be commissioned in the middle of this year, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The launch of the first squadron has shown that the Apache helicopters are combat-ready, while the formation of the additional squadron means it has full combat and defense capabilities, he said.
Photo: Courtesy of the Military News Agency
The command’s 601st Brigade has been training personnel and upgrading its equipment since 2013, the command said, adding that after more than two years of training, one of the two Apache squadrons was commissioned in June last year and has since then contributed greatly to improving the army’s combat capability.
Taiwan in 2008 ordered 30 Boeing AH-64E Apache helicopters from the US for about NT$59.3 billion (US$2.01 billion at the current exchange rate), including personnel training and logistics, and took delivery of the aircraft from November 2013 to October 2014.
One of the helicopters was destroyed in April 2014 after it crashed during a training flight in Taoyuan.
The AH-64E is also known as a “tankbuster.” It is equipped with powerful target acquisition radar that is capable of 360-degree operation for up to 8km, and can simultaneously track up to 128 targets and engage the 16 most dangerous, the command said, adding that it carries 16 Hellfire missiles and can deploy them in less than 30 seconds.
In related news, the army has decided to start phasing out its Bell UH-1H helicopters by the end of this year, even though there are not enough Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to replace them, an anonymous defense official said yesterday.
Although the military originally intended to replace the army’s aging UH-1H fleet with the 60 UH-60Ms it bought from the US, half of the Black Hawks were later allotted to other aviation services, the official said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) each ordered the reassignment of 15 aircraft to the Air Rescue Group and the National Airborne Service Corps respectively, leaving only 30 Black Hawks for the army, the official said.
While the army has held off retiring the UH-1Hs, their ready rate and maintenance costs are no longer acceptable, the official said.
The army believes that the government should buy another 32 UH-60M helicopters from the US, if budget allows, the official said.
Taiwan from 1970 to 1976 built 118 UH-1H helicopters under license, meaning that the last batch of airframes are 42 years old, the official said.
The army intends to donate some of the phased-out aircraft to technical training schools, they added.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS