Taiwan has received delivery from the US of some of its long-awaited AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missiles, which will greatly boost the air force's strike capabilities, a defense source said.
The delivery was made in July in a shipment to the Hualien port in eastern Taiwan. Since then the AIM-120s have been stored near the Chiashan base, the country's largest shelter for fighter planes during times of war.
It is not known how many of AIM-120s ordered from the US have been delivered, but the number is believed to be sufficient for the air force to sustain a first wave of attacks from its Chinese counterpart.
The partial delivery of the AIM-120s is significant in two ways: first, it will greatly strengthen the air force's strike capabilities; second, it shows the US has lifted the restriction on the delivery of the missiles to Taiwan.
The restriction stipulated that the US would not deliver the AIM-120s to Taiwan before China acquired an equivalent weapon -- the Russian-made R-77 medium-range air-to-air missile. China is widely reported to have received a batch of R-77s from Russia early this year, which provides a sufficient reason for Taiwan to ask the US to remove the delivery restriction on the AIM-120s.
The AIM-120, for use on Taiwan's F-16s, is one of the best medium-range air-to-air missiles in the world. Before the arrival of the AIM-120s, the country's fighters had to rely on the outdated Sparrow missile for defense against hostile aircraft beyond visual range.
The US agreed to sell the AIM-120 to Taiwan early last year. Taiwan ordered 200 of the missiles and 292 launchers at a cost of US$150 million. The AIM-120 is also known as AMRAAM (advanced medium-range air-to-air missile).
Besides the AIM-120, the air force has two other kinds of medium-range air-to-air missiles in service for use with the French-made Mirage 2000-5 and domestically-built IDF planes. The two missiles are the Mica and Tien Chien-II (Sky Sword-II).
Before the delivery of the AIM-120s, the air force had sent two F-16 pilots to the US to test the missile.
The first of the two tests took place last October at a US base in Guam. The second test took place early this year at an air base in Arizona, where combat pilots from Taiwan are stationed to take F-16 flight training.
In the second test, the air force sent a total of eight pilots to test-fire AIM-120s from Taiwan-owned F-16s that are kept at the Arizona air base for training purposes.
Prior to the second test, the US had sent Taiwan an unidentified number of simulators for the AIM-120 to get F-16 pilots here familiar with the procedure for operating the state-of-the-art weapon.
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