MILITARY
Warplane incident resolved
An Indigenous Defense Fighter jet that appeared to malfunction in mid-air landed safely at the Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Taichung yesterday, the air force said. Ground crew spotted the plane’s apparent malfunction and instructed the pilot to land immediately, the air force said in a statement. The incident happened during an aerial rehearsal ahead of an open day at the air base tomorrow, the air force said. The air force said that the incident was caused by a defective exhaust nozzle sleeve. A preliminary investigation indicated that the malfunctioning component allowed flames to shoot from the nozzle walls, it said. The engine remained intact and no foreign object or internal object damage was detected, it added. The jet is to undergo repairs, it said without elaborating.
MILITARY
Chinese craft detected
Thirty-three Chinese warplanes were detected in the nation’s air defense identification zone in the 24 hours to 6am yesterday, including eight that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of National Defense said. Six J-10 and two J-16 fighters crossed the median line, while a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane and a Y-9 electronic warfare aircraft flew close to the southwestern boundary of the zone before turning back, flight path information released by the ministry showed. In addition, six Chinese military vessels were detected in waters around Taiwan during the same 24-hour period, it said. The ministry deployed aircraft, ships and coastal missile systems in response to the situation, it said.
MILITARY
Live-fire drills unveiled
The air force and navy are to jointly conduct annual live-fire exercises using air-to-air and anti-ship missiles in waters off the southeastern coast for three days from Tuesday next week, a military source said. Dubbed a “precision missile drill,” the testing is a major military exercise organized alternately by the air force and the navy every year to assess combat readiness, the source said. Air force fighters — Mirage-2000 5s, domestically made Indigenous Defense Fighters and F-16Vs — would fire “shoot and forget” AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air MICAs made by European missile maker MBDA, the source said. The navy would launch Taiwan-made Hsiung Feng anti-ship missiles at four decommissioned vessels, including two Ching Chiang-class patrol vessels, and two rescue and salvage ships, the source said.
ASTRONOMY
Perseids to peak on Sunday
The peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower is to occur on Sunday, with conditions to spot “shooting stars” expected to be the best for the past few years, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The meteor shower, famed for long-lasting streaks of light, is expected to provide views of up to 100 meteors per hour, the museum said. Due to a waning crescent moon, which will not rise until 3am on Monday, stargazing should be relatively easy, it said. The best Perseid performance on record was in 1993, when there were up to 300 meteors visible an hour, NASA said. The Perseids, considered one of the most spectacular meteor showers — along with the Quadrantids in January and the Geminids in December — are active from July 17 to Aug. 24 this year, the museum said. Clear skies are forecast in northern and eastern Taiwan over the weekend, while rain is likely elsewhere, the Central Weather Bureau said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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