The Ministry of National Defense has announced that it plans to develop a new generation of homegrown fighter jets with stealth capabilities as part of the government’s policy to develop an indigenous defense industry.
“Building homegrown aircraft and vessels has become an extremely important policy of the ministry since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) assumed office. Progress has been made in building indigenous vessels and there is another promise the ministry has to keep, which is to develop a new generation of fighter jets,” Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said on Monday.
Feng made the announcement during a meeting with reporters, but did not give any details about the design or functions of the new aircraft.
Photo: CNA
According to reports, the new fighter jet is to be a double-engine stealth plane developed with Taiwanese technology.
The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology has reportedly been developing the engine technology based on the model fitted on the Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF).
The air force’s Aviation Technology Research Center is also to be responsible for the development of the new fighter jets.
The research center, though receiving little public attention, is critical for refining the nation’s air defense capabilities in the next 10 to 20 years, Feng said.
While the nation is still seeking to procure F-35Bs, the short takeoff and vertical-landing variant of the US stealth jet that could satisfy the nation’s defense needs due to the vulnerability of air bases, Taiwan has to develop its own fighter jets to maintain its defense capabilities and increase the possibility of procurement, Feng said.
The development of homegrown fighter jets is key to the nation’s defense industry, as Aerospace Industrial Development Corp, which designed and built the IDF when it was an air force research division, is now the nation’s largest defense company, Feng said.
However, senior military analyst Erich Shih (施孝瑋) said that the IDF engine, with its inadequate thrust, could not be used to power next-generation fighter jets.
A capable engine on next-generation fighter jets should produce at least 24,000 pounds of thrust, but an IDF’s two engines can only produce up to 18,000 pounds of thrust, making the IDF engine unfit for the new jets, Shih said.
Since the development of the IDF in the 1990s, Taiwan has made little progress in military aviation or technological cooperation with other nations — such as an aborted plan to partner with an Italian manufacturer to build trainer jets for the air force — but building new jets is a more efficient option, both technologically and financially, to advance the nation’s aerospace industry, he said.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS