People’s Liberation Army (PLA) incursions into Taiwan’s airspace have led to a surge in the operational costs of the Republic of China Air Force, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The air force’s equipment and facility costs are projected to reach a record NT$29.2 billion (US$1.05 billion) next fiscal year, the ministry said in a budget report dated Tuesday.
They include NT$17.2 billion for maintenance and NT$11.9 billion for purchasing new materiel, up 56 percent from fiscal 2016, the ministry said.
These costs conform to the trend of rising year-on-year maintenance costs, which stem from missions to intercept PLA aircraft, it said.
The PLA began sending jets and bombers into the country’s airspace in concurrence with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) re-election in 2016, the ministry said.
In 2018, it shifted its focus from aerial circumnavigation of Taiwan’s airspace to incursions of the southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ), it said.
In November last year, air force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Huang Chih-wei (黃志偉) told a legislative hearing that the air force must plan for costs associated with aircraft maintenance and spare parts acquisition two years ahead. The budget was calculated in light of the military situation, for equipment upgrading and facility construction, he said at the time.
The largest number of Chinese warplanes entering Taiwan’s ADIZ since the ministry started publishing such movements on Sept. 17 last year was 28 on June 15 this year, two days after the G7 highlighted the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Additional reporting by CNA
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS