The air force's only operational reconnaissance force -- the fourth squadron -- has been selected as " model unit of the year" and is shortly to be introduced to the public for the first time, defense officials said yesterday.
The fourth squadron, comprised of six RF-5E aircraft and two F-5Fs, is to be opened to the press next week, the first of its kind since it was equipped with the RF-5Es in 1997.
The squadron, which used to be based at a Taoyuan air base, now operates at Taichung's CCK air base.
As one of the air force's top secret forces, the squadron is little known to the public.
The squadron started operating the RF-5Es in 1997. The RF-5Es were converted from F-5Es, which was the air force's main fighter plane before second-generation fighters such as F-16A/Bs, Mirage 2000-5s and IDFs came into service.
Only six F-5Es were converted into RF-5Es by a Singaporean defense company.
The squadron also has two F-5Fs, which are not capable of reconnaissance missions. It is not known why these two planes became part of the squadron.
Besides the fourth squadron, the air force has another similar unit -- the 12th squadron. The squadron is comprised of ten F-16 fighters, which are to be equipped with a reconnaissance system to be bought from the US.
The 12th squadron has yet to become an operational reconnaissance unit because all of its F-16s are still ordinary fighters without any special reconnaissance systems.
The ten F-16s are to be called RF-16s after they are equipped with the needed reconnaissance systems.
An air force official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he personally does not support the idea of converting ten F-16s into reconnaissance planes.
"It is wasteful to turn F-16s into reconnaissance planes. The F-16 fighter is designed mainly for combat. It is good for the air force to have powerful reconnaissance planes, but better not to use the F-16s for the purpose," the official said.
Before the 12th squadron can become operational, the fourth squadron has to serve as the eyes of the air force for some time to come.
Some air force officials said in private that the RF-5Es should be retired as early as possible since they are not very useful as reconnaissance planes because of their low speed and operational altitude.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater