A US official confirmed on Thursday that Taiwan is seeking to buy as many as 66 advanced Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighter aircraft over a period of five to 10 years to guard its skies from any Chinese assault.
The Chinese-language China Times reported earlier this month, without identifying any sources, that a Taiwanese delegation had proposed the procurement of F-16C/D fighters during an annual military meeting with Washington.
Such a deal could be worth as much as US$5.5 billion based on prices quoted by the Pentagon last month for up to 36 such F-16s and related gear sought by Pakistan.
If the US agrees to sell the fighters, it would be the biggest arms deal Washington has offered Taiwan since 2001, when US President George W. Bush agreed to provide Taiwan with eight diesel-powered submarines, 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft and an improved version of Patriot missiles.
Taiwan's Air Force has been pursuing the Block 50/52 F-16C single-seat configuration and the F-16D two-seat version for at least a year, said the US official, who asked not to be named.
Its "top priority is to protect the skies," the official said. He said the F-16C/Ds would replace the Indigenous Defense Fighter, F-5 supersonic fighter and perhaps the Mirage 2000 multirole fighters built by Dassault of France.
Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman Wu Chi-fang (
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao (
A Washington-based representative of the Taiwanese Air Force declined to comment, as did Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's biggest supplier.
US arms sales to Taiwan are particularly thorny. They are opposed by Beijing, mired in partisan wrangling in Taipei and viewed by Washington as a test of Taiwan's willingness to invest in its own defense and cut the danger of a cross-strait clash into which US forces could be drawn.
Since Bush approved Taiwan's request for submarines, anti-submarine warfare aircraft, four decommissioned Kidd-class destroyers and other weapons in 2001, most of these deals have been held up in Taiwan's legislature, highlighting similar potential snags to an F-16 deal, assuming it is approved by the US, as is expected.
Still, Taiwan must make a major fighter purchase in the next few years if it is to maintain a credible Air Force, said Richard Aboulafia of the Fairfax, Virginia-based TEAL Group, an aerospace consultancy.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
RSS