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.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS