The Air Force Command yesterday posted notice of a NT$1.17 billion (US$37.98 million) deal with the US to maintain military aircraft weapon systems training simulators from this year through 2027.
Taiwan’s defense mission to the US inked the restricted tendering contract with the American Institute in Taiwan, the public version of the notice said.
The document did not specify the type of aircraft simulators, but identified the locations as Tainan and Pingtung, where the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing and 6th Mixed Tactical Wing are based respectively.
Photo: You Tai-lang, Taipei Times
The 1st Fighter Tactical Wing operates AIDC F-CK-1 jets and the 6th Mixed Tactical Wing operates Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.
However, the maintenance and sustainment package could be related to tactical simulators the air force is due to receive for General Atomics MQ-9B drones and Lockheed Martin F-16Vs, to be delivered by next year and in 2025 respectively.
In other developments, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said a Coast Guard Administration project to build frigates domestically for its fleet achieved 50 percent of its goal on Monday.
Kuan gave the update at her first ship delivery ceremony, when the Coast Guard Administration took delivery of its sixth Anping-class offshore frigate, the Jian (吉安, CG607), and its 25th patrol boat (PP-3512) built by Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Co.
The frigate is part of a program launched in 2018 to supply the coast guard with 141 vessels of various tonnages by 2027 at a cost of more than NT$42.6 billion.
Twelve of the frigates were ordered and the delivery of the Jian on Monday meant that half of the order had been completed.
The Jian has self-righting capabilities, and can conduct maritime rescue missions and inspections of fishing boats, as well as drive away suspicious vessels. It is equipped with a rocket system and a remote controlled 20mm cannon.
Alongside the two ships, the event also celebrated the ceremonial launching of the seventh frigate (CG609), which was christened as the Wanli (萬里).
The Anping-class frigates were modeled on the navy’s Tuo Chiang-class corvettes.
As such, both vessels are equipped with a water cannon with a range of 120m, can reach speeds of up to 44 knots (81.5kph) and can withstand up to force 9 winds on the Beaufort scale.
The Jian is to be deployed in eastern Taiwan to protect the nation’s maritime rights and the interests of local fishers, while the Wanli is to join the fleet in the north when it is delivered.
Separately, the Coast Guard Administration yesterday announced that a detachment of its elite Special Task Unit had been deployed to counter Chinese speedboats prowling the waters off of Lienchiang County’s Dongyin Island (東引).
The detachment has familiarized itself with the physical and human geography of the Matsu Islands over the past month in preparation for the mission, which would last at least one week, it said.
The size of the detachment is classified for operational reasons, but one coastal patrol craft has been allocated for the mission, it said.
The unit is the coast guard’s special forces utilized in tactical roles and members don black body armor and helmets on patrol, unlike other coast guard units that wear orange high-visibility uniforms, it added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching