The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has signed two deals worth NT$12.84 billion (US$419.31 million) with the US for parts and aviation materials to maintain Taiwan’s fighter jet fleet.
The ministry signed the agreements with the American Institute in Taiwan — NT$9.9 billion for spare parts and NT$2.94 billion for nonstandard parts and aviation materials — it said in a public contract notice on Friday.
The spare parts contract is to be implemented from this month to March 2028, while the smaller agreement also starts from this month through June 2027, it said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The air force is under immense strain to maintain jets as it is flying numerous missions in response to China’s constant military incursions into the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), a defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Fighters have been scrambled to shadow Chinese jets and large uncrewed aerial vehicles, while also conducting other missions, including reconnaissance flights by RF-16s, they said.
The missions haven taken a heavy toll on Taiwanese aircraft and led to a significant increase in demand for parts and materials, they said, adding that the navy has also been obliged to deploy warships to monitor Chinese military vessels.
The military has already exhausted its budget for jet and ship fuel because of attempts to counter Beijing’s activities, the official said, adding that the Executive Yuan released NT$1.68 billion from its reserve funds for fuel.
The military from early Thursday to early yesterday detected 19 aircraft sorties, including 10 that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or entered the country’s southwestern ADIZ, in addition to five naval sorties in waters around Taiwan, the ministry said.
In other news, members of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee are on Thursday to tour a facility of CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船), the company contracted to build a prototype of an indigenous submarine.
The visit was listed in the legislators’ public schedules, although the purpose of the tour was classified.
The prototype submarine utilizes a partial double-hull design consisting of six pressurized compartments and a conning tower, with an X-shaped tail rudder and stabilizing fins on the sides of the tower, CBSC said.
The 70m-long submarine is to carry 18 MK-48 torpedoes and an undisclosed number of ship-launched Harpoon missiles. It is to have a displacement of 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes.
CSBC is in the process of completing the submarine’s pressure hull and said it expects to launch the vessel in September.
Last month, the defense ministry invited professors and students of engineering to attend a presentation on the making of the prototype and tour CSBC’s submarine factory in Keelung’s Jhongjheng District (中正).
CSBC used computer models to simulate the submarine’s assembly and a mock-up of the vessel has been built to train maintenance personnel, an attendee of the tour said in an article published anonymously on the Chinese-language online news outlet Up Media.
The factory at that time was working on the bow torpedo tubes, which is the most critical step in manufacturing the pressure hull, the person said.
The use of a large five-axis computer numerical control machine showed that crews were paying careful attention to reducing the vessel’s weight, they added.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS