A Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday that the army would seek to replace its remaining Bell AH-1W Super Cobras with Sikorsky MH-60M Blackhawk helicopters, but the military refused to comment on the story.
"Let me say it one more time. This idea is in the concept stage only," Ministry of National Defense Spokesman Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang (
It was the second time that Wu had been approached for comment regarding the army's plan to purchase new helicopters.
Defense News reported last week that the military was planning to purchase 30 attack helicopters from the US to replace its 62 remaining AH-1Ws, which were purchased in 1993. Bell AH-1Z Cobras, Boeing AH-64D Apache Block IIIs and Sikorsky MH-60M helicopters were all being considered, according to Defense News.
Yesterday, the China Times newspaper reported that the MH-60M was now favored by the army.
The report acknowledged that all military purchases were dependent on the annual budget, and that the purchase was still in the planning stage. Furthermore, the paper said, the budget proposal for the next fiscal year was not yet complete.
In addition to replacing its AH-1Ws, the army is also likely to retire its remaining Bell UH-1H Iroquois, which are more than 30 years old.
Because parts for the UH-1H are no longer manufactured, it has become extremely difficult for the army to maintain these helicopters.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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