Taiwan has signed an NT$11.25 billion (US$345.5 million) contract with the US to procure infrared search and track (IRST) systems that, according to a military source, are to be used for F-16V jets.
A notice posted yesterday on the Government e-Procurement System said that the deal to procure the systems was signed by the Ministry of Defense’s Defense Mission to the US and the American Institute in Taiwan on June 25.
The contract is valid from the day it was signed to Dec. 31, 2030.
Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP
The systems, which were first announced in an arms sale package of the IRST systems and 16 related items on Aug. 23 last year, would be used on Taiwan’s fleet of 66 F-16V jets ordered from the US, a military source with knowledge of the matter said.
According to the notice on the procurement system, the contract’s supervising agency is the air force, with an address corresponding to the Zhi-Hang Air Base in Taitung County, where the F-16Vs are to be stationed.
The ministry said the new-generation IRST systems were developed specifically for the F-16V and would vastly enhance the fighters’ target acquisition and tracking capabilities, as well as their overall air combat performance.
Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌), an expert at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, last year told reporters that the IRSTs could be effectively deployed against China’s fifth-generation fighters.
The systems are capable of picking up heat signatures emitted by aircraft such as engine exhausts, and heat generated by friction between the fuselage and the air, giving it the upper hand on China’s new fighters, which would be otherwise hard to detect due to their compact radar cross-section, Shu said.
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