A military enthusiast yesterday posted photographs of Taiwanese F-16 jets taking off from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu with two refueling aircraft, presumably returning to Taiwan from the US for upgrades.
Asked about the matter, the Ministry of National Defense declined to comment.
The jets had been part of training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and had briefly landed in Honolulu, where the photographer, Aeros808, had spotted them, a source said.
Photo: Yu Tai-lang, Taipei Times
The jets did not land in Guam, which had been done in 1996 when the US Air Force delivered F-16s to Taiwan, the source said, adding that the jets were refueled mid-air eight times.
The air force had launched two F-16Vs to escort the jets, while officials cleared the perimeter of Hualien Air Base of unauthorized people.
The jets are to undergo an inspection before their departure for Ching Chuang Kang Air Base, where they are to be upgraded, the source said.
Separately, the navy said that it has commissioned the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to manufacture a range of mid to long-range radars, which would be used to upgrade naval radar stations across the nation.
The upgrades would improve the navy’s ability to monitor Chinese naval movements, it said.
The navy has numerous radar stations on Taiwan proper, and on Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu.
Many of the stations operate outdated equipment and cannot deliver results that meet the navy’s expectations, it said.
The first phase of the upgrades, at an estimated cost of NT$250 million (US$8.93 million), is expected to be completed by the end of this year, the navy said.
The navy is contemplating following the air force’s lead in establishing an information hub for all radar feeds to minimize casualties in the event of an attack.
Such a hub would have to be implemented in stages, as it is dependent on regional radar station locations and how cables are to be routed, the navy said.
‘SHANDONG’
In other news, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Shandong carrier group is slowly moving northward after wrapping up “routine exercises” in the South China Sea earlier this month, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the carrier group and would keep tabs on its movement regardless of whether it moves through the Taiwan Strait or takes another route.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS