The US has agreed to extend a Taipei-Washington pact to train Taiwan's F-16 pilots for five more years, a Taiwanese newspaper said yesterday.
Quoting an unnamed US official, a Chinese-language newspaper said the US renewed the agreement for training Taiwanese F-16 pilots at Luke Airbase in Arizona for another five years, starting next year.
"The training program covers air-to-air combat, night attack, blockage over the sea, air engagement and air command," the paper said in a dispatch from Washington.
The US agreed to sell Taipei150 F-16 warplanes in 1992 when Taipei was negotiating to buy 60 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets from France.
The air force sent an F-16 squadron to Luke Airbase in 1997 under a training program which ends at the end of this year.
The air force fleet consists of 150 F-16s, 60 Mirage 2000-5s and 130 self-built IDFs (Indigenous Defense Fighter).
The purchase of the F-16s and Mirage 2000-5s has given Taiwan an edge over the Chinese air force, but some analysts believe Taipei could lose this air superiority if the US sells F-16s to Pakistan and India, close allies of China, and if the EU lifts the ban on arms sale to China.
On March 25, President George W. Bush authorized the sale of F-16s to Pakistan to reward Islamabad for joining in the US-led war against terrorism.
Simultaneously Bush also allowed US firms to sell warplanes, including upgraded F-16s and F-18s, to India.
Taiwanese analysts have expressed fear that Pakistan and India would pass on the F-16 technology to China and help the Chinese air force in preparing an attack on Taiwan.
Meanwhile China is also seeking to buy Mirage warplanes from France. In April, Hong Kong's Commercial Daily reported that China has been negotiating since late last year to buy 210 Mirage 2000-9CS from Dasault Aviation, and could get the jets as soon as the EU lifts the arms sales ban on China.
The paper reported China plans to send 40 pilots to France this month to learn how to fly Mirage jets, and take delivery of the first 30 Mirage 2000-9CS at the end of next year.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS