An Air Force official yesterday told the legislature that the US could announce the approval of the sale of F-16C/D fighter aircraft to Taiwan as early as June.
“We have learned that the US military supports the F-16 deal and are optimistic that the US might announce the sale after May,” Air Force Chief of Staff Major General Liu Chen-wu (劉震武) told the legislature’s Diplomacy and National Defense Committee.
He said the military was awaiting the announcement.
The military expected to sign a letter of offer and acceptance for the deal in November and that at the time the military offered to make an initial payment of NT$19.9 billion (US$653.8 million), he said.
The military’s budget request in 2006 showed that the Cabinet had allocated NT$16.03 billion to begin the procurement of F-16s, even though Washington had yet to approve the deal.
The initial payment was only a fraction of the total cost for 66 aircraft. But the funds were returned after the US did not approve the arms deal.
The legislature set aside NT$20 billion for the purchase of F-16s last year, but it requested that the funds be frozen until the deal was approved.
Liu made the presentation to the legislative committee with the hope that the committee could support funding for the acquisition.
The committee agreed yesterday to unfreeze the funds if and when the US has announced the deal.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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