Hercules C-130 transport planes operated by the Air Force can be refitted as tanker aircraft, which can beef up the country’s air defenses in the event of war, military officials said recently.
Although the Air Force has no tanker aircrafts, the C-130 is spacious enough to be turned into a tanker aircraft if it is equipped with refueling equipment such as oil tanks and hoses, the officials said.
“Tanker aircrafts can double the in-flight operating time for combat aircrafts,” they said, adding that the country’s warplanes can remain airborne for only two hours at most without refueling.
File Photo: Yu Tai-lang, Taipei Times
Among the nation’s main combat aircrafts, the US-made F-16A/B and Mirage 2000-5s from France can both be refueled in the air, the officials added.
“Our military pilots — who have been trained in the US or France on how to operate the F-16 and the Mirage 2000-5s — know how to refuel in the air,” officials said.
The issue of tanker aircrafts, however, is a sensitive one. With such planes, the F-16s and the Mirage 2000-5s would be seen as attack aircrafts rather than defense ones.
Due to this issue, which could spark concerns among neighboring countries such as China and Japan, it is unlikely Taiwan will be able to acquire such equipment from the US, the country’s main arms supplier.
The Taiwan Relations Act, enacted by the US Congress in 1979 when Washington and Taipei severed ties, obliges the US to provide Taiwan only with defensive arms.
From the middle of the 1980s to the early 1990s, Taiwan’s Air Force purchased a total of 20 Lockheed Martin C-130Hs transport aircraft from the US Air Force, replacing aging C-119s.
The four-engine turboprop aircraft can serve a number of functions, including troop, medical evacuation and cargo transport, as well as search and rescue, scientific research, weather reconnaissance, aerial refueling and maritime patrol.
Additional reporting by Staff writer
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard