President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over the opening of a maintenance center for F-16 jets in Taichung — the first of its kind in Asia — allowing the nation’s fleet of fighter jets to get an upgrade and eventually other countries’ aircraft to get repairs.
Under an agreement reached in December last year, the NT$110 billion (US$3.73 billion) facility was jointly established by Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) and the US-based Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the jets.
The center is to handle the upgrades on the Republic of China (ROC) Air Force’s 142 F-16A/B jets, as well as repairs on the 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets that the government purchased from the US last year.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Tsai told the opening ceremony that defending the sovereignty of the ROC and maintaining regional peace meant that Taiwan could not bow to pressure, but needed to have strong national defense capabilities.
The maintenance center “will significantly reduce maintenance time and increase fighter jet availability,-- ensuring air superiority on the front lines of national defense,” she said.
Expounding on her mantra that “peace depends on national defense,” Tsai said that national defense efforts could also be used to spur industrial development by creating industry chains, technology transfers and better training.
One of her top priorities is to allow local vendors to participate in production and maintenance work connected with the center, Tsai said.
By doing so, the center could likely generate NT$79.5 billion in output value over 30 years, support 600 jobs annually and create NT$200 billion in overall industry benefits, she added.
The facility would help the nation’s air force resolve three of its main issues with the F-16 platform: high maintenance costs, long delivery times for spare parts and the high frequency of jet usage, AIDC president Ma Wan-june (馬萬鈞) said.
Taiwan would soon have more than 200 F-16s, he said, adding that with a system availability of about 70 to 80 percent, about 40 fighter jets would always be undergoing maintenance.
While the center’s first priority is the ROC Air Force, Ma said that there was “no reason” why the center could not eventually compete for business from other countries in the region that operate F-16s.
Under the terms of its strategic alliance with Lockheed Martin, AIDC has received authorization to produce 23 parts used in F-16s.
At the time of the agreement, AIDC said that it had about 800 technicians certified by the company to carry out upgrades on F-16A/B jets.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai