The air force showcased its ability to rapidly replenish and get back into the air its most advanced F-16 jets in a readiness drill yesterday, designed to demonstrate combat-oriented training.
The air force scrambles on an almost daily basis to monitor and warn off Chinese aircraft that routinely fly around the nation. Taipei views the incursions as part of an ongoing harassment campaign to test and tire out Taiwanese forces and exert political pressure.
President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration, as part of a defense modernization program, has pushed for more combat-realistic training that relies less on set-piece performances and more on simulating actual combat.
Photo: CNA
At Chiayi air base, personnel loaded US-made AIM-9M Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM anti-aircraft missiles onto a Lockheed Martin F-16V jet and got the aircraft quickly back into the air.
“This ensures that, in the shortest possible time, the aircraft can complete ammunition resupply and refueling, and quickly go out on the attack,” weapons loading officer Wu Bo-jhih (吳柏志) told reporters.
Taiwan routinely holds drills ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, although these were the first to take place in front of the media since China held its latest round of war games around the nation late last month.
Pilot Shih Shun-de (施順德) said it was important to let people know just how fast the air force can react.
“The scramble drill lets the public see the results of the air force’s realistic, combat-oriented training,” Shih said.
The repeated scrambling of aircraft to see off China’s air force also gives real-life experience to fighter pilots in terms of observing China’s air force and tactics up close.
During the height of the Cold War, the two air forces had regular dogfights over the Taiwan Strait, but no shots in anger have been fired in decades.
Speaking at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday during a promotion ceremony for senior officers, Lai said that the military’s training must be more practical, more flexible and closer to real combat.
“At the same time, we must develop a range of enemy-defeating strategies with agility, using technology and artificial intelligence to build a defense force that is effective, credible and modernized,” Lai said.
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