The last of Taiwan’s order of 12 Lockheed P-3C Orion aircraft is expected to be delivered in July, a Ministry of National Defense official said.
The US-made aircraft is to be unveiled at a ceremony that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is expected to attend, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The Chinese submarine fleet is large and equipped with high-tech weaponry, so a three-pronged counterattack from air, sea and undersea units and modern submarines would be essential to prevail in a military conflict, the official said.
The Orion aircraft are to be the backbone of the nation’s marine patrol warfare capability, the official said.
The first aircraft was delivered in September 2013 and was operational by July 2014, and has been used as a training platform, he said.
“The delivery of the final P-3C will mark a new chapter in our aerial anti-submarine forces,” the official said.
As a component of the arms package, the US is to assist Taiwan in creating a “maritime mission support center,” that would enable direct ground support for air patrols and the establishment of real-time situational awareness over the sea, the official said.
The center would mark fundamental changes in the way the air force deploys multi-role marine patrol aircraft, he said.
In related news, the air force had planned to scrap a fleet of Grumman S-2 Tracker marine-patrol aircraft, but a recent internal assessment reversed the decision and decided to keep some in service, sources said.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
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