The air force last week signed two contracts with France for spare parts for the Dassault Mirage 2000 avionics and electric warfare suite and for pilot training worth NT$5.7 billion (US$185.82 million) and NT$35 million respectively, a Ministry of National Defense official said on Sunday.
The avionics and electronic warfare components contract is an open, four-year-and-two-months contract to be implemented from October next year, while the pilot training contract is a two-year deal that begins in November, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Sixty Mirage fighters were bought from France in a deal inked in November 1992 and all of the operable aircraft are deployed at the Hsinchu Air Base, the official said.
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration tried to negotiate a deal to replace the aging Mirages with the Dassault Rafale, but the project died when he left office, the official said.
Plans to upgrade the more than 20-year-old fighters has long been muddied by allegations of alleged arms sale kickbacks to the French government, the official added.
The Mirage 2000s are in urgent need of an upgrade to remain on par with the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) Indigenous Defense Fighter and the US-made Lockheed-Martin F-16, which have been heavily upgraded, so the military began talks with France to procure medium and short-range missiles, spare parts for avionics and electronic warfare systems and pilot training, the official said.
The AIDC has also signed a NT$15.7 billion contract to maintain and service two tactical fighter wings of Indigenous Defense Fighters starting in January next year, the official said.
The AIDC is already working on a NT$68.6 billion project to manufacture 66 advanced jet trainers, to be completed by 2028, as well as a NT$140.2 billion project to upgrade F-16s, the official said.
The government expects that the public capital injection and introduction of technologies will stimulate the nation’s aeronautics industry and strengthen its competitiveness on the international market, the official said.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
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