The nation is planning to purchase trainers to replace its aging fleet of F-5E/F jets and AT-3 jet trainers, Minister of National Defense Yen Ming (嚴明) said yesterday.
The plans to procure advanced trainers are expected to be included in the Ministry of National Defense budget for 2017, Yen said while fielding questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Yen also confirmed that the trainers would be multifunctional — meaning that they can be used for flight training or in combat.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Currently, fighter pilots complete their training in T-34 trainers, the AT-3 and the F-5E/F jet, before pursuing instruction in second-generation F-16A/Bs, the Mirage 2000-5 or the Indigenous Defense Fighter, the air force said.
After the nation acquires the advanced trainers, fighter pilot training would involve T-34s, the new trainers and the second-generation jet fighters, it added.
Yen’s remarks came two days after the pilot of an AT-3 jet trainer, Lieutenant Colonel Chuang Pei-yuan (莊倍源), was killed after his aircraft crashed in a field in Zihguan District (梓官) in Greater Kaohsiung, after apparently colliding with another trainer during a training mission.
The aircraft — belonging to the Air Force Academy in Kaohsiung — were used by the Thunder Tiger Squadron and were on a training mission when the collision occurred, the air force said on Tuesday.
As the ministry is planning more military cuts, Lin asked whether the Thunder Tiger Aerobatics Team would be disbanded.
Yen replied that the aerobatics team would remain intact, but the military would review whether to retain riskier maneuvers that pose greater threats to pilot safety.
The air force said previously that Chuang twice rejected appeals to bail out as he tried to steer his aircraft clear of residential areas after a midair incident.
Chuang is eligible to be memorialized at a local martyrs’ shrine, Yen said as he expressed sadness over the death of an exceptional pilot.
Initial findings of an investigation into the crash have ruled out environmental factors or mechanical failure, with “human factors” more likely to be the cause of the crash, Yen said, but added that further investigation is needed.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS