Air force Chief of Staff General Tsao Chin-ping (曹進平) confirmed local media reports that a US-made MIM-104F Patriot (PAC-3) missile fired during a drill early yesterday prematurely exploded before it hit the target.
Tsao said the air force and the military’s top research unit, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, were still investigating the cause of the explosion.
Local media reports said it was the first time a Patriot missile bought from the US had exploded on its own before hitting its target during firing tests that are conducted in Taiwan every two years.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Separately, the air force apologized to the Coast Guard Administration after one of its F-16 jets badly missed its target during a training session on Wednesday last week and dropped a bomb too close to a coast guard vessel.
An F-16V jet missed its target at sea and dropped a 907kg MK-84 bomb in waters near Pingtung County’s Jioupeng military base, Tsao told a regular briefing.
The bomb sent off a shock wave that affected a crewed coast guard vessel, although no casualties were reported, because the bomb landed several nautical miles from the vessel, he said.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
The air force has apologized to the Coast Guard Administration and would punish the pilot, as well as his instructor, for failing to properly supervise the bomb drop drill, Tsao said.
Tsao’s apology came after local media reported on the incident late on Monday after several coast guard members complained on social media that they had to seek medical attention because of the shock wave caused by the bomb.
Tsao also confirmed that the air force has not listed a budget for the Beechcraft T-34C trainer replacement program.
The service life of the airframes of Taiwan’s T-34 fleet would not expire for many years and the requirements for their replacement has not yet been determined, he said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday said reports that the navy overspent its ship fuel budget by NT$4 billion (US$125.25 million) were untrue, adding that the funds allocated for fuel would be increased to NT$11 billion next year.
Local media on Monday reported that the navy had exceeded its budget for fuel as it had needed to mount frequent sorties in response to aggressive ship movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy in waters around Taiwan.
The ministry has approved a NT$7.1 billion ship fuel budget for the navy, which has not been exceeded this year, Rear Admiral Chen Chun-chung (陳春忠), chief of the Material Readiness Section at the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Logistics, told a routine news conference in Taipei.
Should funding run out, the navy can apply to use available funding reserves in accordance with regular procedures, he said.
Additional reporting by Jonathan Chin
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS