Taiwan is to begin retiring the last of the military’s Northrop F-5E/F jets by the end of the month at the earliest, a source in the air force said, commenting on condition of anonymity.
Most of the remaining operational F-5 jets are either serving as trainers at the Air Force Academy or RF-5E reconnaissance jets at Hualien County’s Chiashan Air Base, the source said.
The air force expects to replace the trainer jets with AIDC T-5 Brave Eagles and has already mothballed most of F-5E/Fs configured for air superiority two years ago, they said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Although the source declined to provide details about the retirement of the RF-5E jets, the air force is reportedly seeking to obtain MS-110 reconnaissance systems for its F-16s and MQ-9B Reapers from the US.
Retiring the F-5 fleet would have an unclear implication on the air force’s NT$11 million (US$367,512) budget for the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to maintain its avionics and a NT$1 million budget for maintenance packages from the US.
Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) last month told Chinese-language media that he had ordered the general staff to eliminate systems that did not meet operational requirements, were too expensive to maintain or had exceeded their service life.
The army’s CM-12 tanks and some of its towed artillery systems were among the systems that Koo said could be retired.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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