The first of the nation’s 66 F-16 Block 70 jets is soon to roll off the Lockheed-Martin production line in the US, with Taiwan intending to send deputy minister-level officials to attend the event marking its completion, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told a legislative committee on Thursday.
The US has also provided its preliminary list of who would attend the event, Koo said, adding that it would be inappropriate for him to divulge further information at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
The air force plans to send its deputy chief of staff to accompany the deputy minister of national defense to the event, air force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Wang Te-yang (王德揚) said, adding that it would take place “soon.”
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
With the arrival of the F-16 Block 70, the air force would be operating two variants of the F-16 jets, with the F-16 Block 20 being upgraded after the Feng Chan Project (鳳展計畫), the Ministry of National Defense has said.
New equipment, including the AIM-120D air-to-air missiles outfitted by the air force’s Fourth Tactical Wing 22nd Tactical Fighter Group, has improved the air force’s ability to deter potential aerial invasions, it said.
After a year of training, F-16V jets in the air force’s Fourth and Fifth Tactical Fighter Wings have recently completed training exercises using AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation missiles simulating attack runs against the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) radar facilities, it added.
The ministry is also considering purchasing electronic warfare pods to enhance its fleet of F-16V jets and would be listing the purchase in its fiscal 2026 budget, it said.
In other developments, the military’s five-day combat-readiness exercise is to commence on Monday involving all three services.
The exercise would be unscripted and simulate real combat scenarios, which would better prepare units for a possible invasion, the ministry said.
The military would be monitoring PLA “gray zone” exercises — which might mask potential real invasions — to assess threat levels and would conduct its own combat-readiness drills to prepare for any escalation, Koo said earlier this month.
The ministry said it is also extending the computer-assisted simulation and live exercise sections of this year’s Han Kuang drills to 14 days and 10 days respectively.
The military-affiliated Youth Daily News yesterday reported that the army’s Sixth Army Corps Commander Lieutenant General Chen Wen-hsing (陳文星) on Thursday convened a meeting with staff officers to prepare for the upcoming exercise.
The exercise aims to simulate real combat situations and test troops’ response to unexpected incidents, Chen said.
The goal is to ensure troops would be able to mobilize for warfare immediately, he said.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS