The air force has shelved, for now, a plan to buy medium-transport aircraft from either Indonesia or the US because of lack of money.
The new aircraft was being sought to share the heavy workload of the C-130H airlifter, the air force's main workhorse. Indonesia's CN-235, jointly developed by Indonesia and Spain, was one choice, a US-Italian joint venture, the CH-27J transport, was the other.
The CN-235 is considered to have a cost advantage, but is less competitive in terms of flight capabilities and carrying capacity. Though much more expensive, the CH-27J is capable of carrying out combat support missions or working as electronic-warfare platform.
Which plane the air force wanted to buy is not known.
Erich Shih (
"The air force does need a lighter airlifter than the C-130H to carry out less demanding transport missions. The C-130Hs have been used too frequently," Shih said.
"The C-130H should be used for longer-distance airlifting missions, such as carrying personnel and military supplies to offshore islands. But the aircraft has been used mainly within the island, which is not cost-effective," he said. "The operation and maintenance costs for the C-130H are very high."
The C-130H has been in service with the air force since 1986, when it bought around 20 of the planes. It lost one of the aircraft in a deadly crash on Oct. 10, 1997.
For the last 16 years the C-130H has been the air force's only heavy airlifter, but is more often used as an air bus or express delivery cargo plane than as a real military plane.
A defense source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the C-130H has been used as an air bus, flying on a regular basis between Hualien and several fixed destinations in the western part of Taiwan.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS