The US Department of Defense on Monday said that it has no plans to send F-16 jets scheduled for delivery to Taiwan to Poland instead, calling speculation raised by a US media report “not accurate.”
The comments by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby followed a report in the New York Times on Sunday, which said that the administration of US President Joe Biden was exploring ways to supply Polish Soviet-made fighter jets to Ukraine to aid in its war against Russia, as Ukrainian pilots are more familiar with Russian-made jets.
One option was to send US-made F-16s to Poland as replacements, the report said, although “Polish officials seemed less than enthusiastic.”
Photo: CNA
With the next tranche of F-16s for export set to go to Taiwan, those fighter jets were an option, the report said, adding that US officials were reluctant to delay Taiwan’s F-16 program.
Asked in a CNN interview on Monday whether F-16 jets meant for Taiwan could be provided to Poland, Kirby replied: “That rumor is not accurate.”
However, he did acknowledge that Washington would not “stand in the way” if any nation did want to provide fighter jets to Ukraine.
In that regard, the US has started to have conversations about how it could “backfill,” or replace, jets transferred to Ukraine by another nation, including “what kind of aircraft, where would they come from and how do you get them,” Kirby said.
However, he said that the US did not have “any answers” at the moment and that there was “no proposal on the table.”
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday confirmed that the administration has been consulting with Poland and other NATO allies on the possibility of transferring jets to Ukraine, but said the decision was ultimately up to Warsaw.
Aside from the question of how to transfer Polish jets to Ukraine, the issue of providing replacement jets to Poland was also logistically complex, given that procuring new planes and transferring weapons systems often takes years, Psaki said.
Washington in 2019 approved the sale of 66 F-16Vs to Taiwan in an US$8 billion deal, with delivery expected to start next year and extend through 2026.
The 66 F-16Vs are to be deployed at Chihhang Air Base in Taitung County.
Meanwhile, Taiwan is also upgrading its F-16A/B jets to the more advanced F-16V format.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS