2023-05-08 09:08:30
taiwan have a problem with the new ones F-16 fighter jets he bought from USA in 2019. The island’s Ministry of Defense has announced that deliveries of the first F-16Vs have been delayed and will not be transferred this year but in the third quarter of 2024. Bad news amid increased tension with Chinawhose regime held a large air-naval demonstration around Taiwan a month ago to rehearse what a blockade would look like to isolate and control the island territory in the event of an invasion.
The problems in the supply chain derived from the covid pandemic are the cause of the delay in the delivery of the new aircraft purchased by Taipei for a total of 8,000 million dollars. Taiwan has asked the North American manufacturer to at least deliver spare parts to repair and upgrade the old F-16s it already has in its fleet as soon as possible. The aircraft modernization program is being carried out by a Taiwanese company and includes new equipment, such as the Advanced Active Electronic Scanning Array radar, the Joint Helmet Targeting system and the AIM-9X air-to-air missiles. Rattlesnake.
Once the aircraft purchased in 2019 are delivered (the process will not be completed until 2026), the Taiwanese F-16 fleet will amount to more than 200 aircraft of this type of apparatus. To date, the “rebel island”, as it is called by China, has converted 141 F-16A/B aircraft – purchased in the 1990s during George Bush’s presidency – to the F-16V type and has ordered the acquisition of 66 new F-16Vs, that have new avionics, weaponry, and new radar systems, with the aim of countering the Chinese Air Force, including their A Chinese pilot boasts of flying his J-20 fighter over Taiwanese airspace undetected
Taiwan is a collateral casualty of the Ukrainian war. He complains about the delay in the supply of weapons by the United States, the only country that sends weapons to the island. But its North American partner assures that all the production capacity has the Ukrainian war as a priority.
The United States has yet to supply Taiwan with weapons worth approximately 19 billion dollars, reports Defense 24. The deliveries that Taiwan expects are Harpoon anti-ship missiles -from the manufacturer Boeing-, F-16 Lockheed Martin), systems of HIMARS missilesas well as the Javelin man-portable anti-tank missile and the Stinger light anti-aircraft missile.
The aforementioned media outlet affirms that the Taiwanese combat aircraft’s tactic is to intercept the enemy at medium and low altitude with FC-K and F-16 aircraft, while the French-made Mirage 2000 fighters, specialized in air combat, would carry out interceptions at great height.
The Taiwan Air Force currently possesses a total of six squadrons with F-16 multirole; five squadrons with light fighters F-CK Taiwanese designed Ching Kuo; three squadrons with planes Mirage 2000-5E/D and another three with the old fighters F-5E/F Tiger II. In total, the Taiwanese war fleet includes more than 400 combat aircraft, of which at least 140 are F-16s.
With nearly 50 years of history, the F-16 has been for decades the cheapest western fighter jet on the market. Originally designed by the American company General Dynamics as a light fighter, it evolved into a powerful fighter-bomber present in the Air Forces of 26 countries.
An F-16 crashes in South Korea
The F-16 has been in the news this weekend due to an accident in South Korea, where an F-16 Fighting Falcon, assigned to the 8th Fighter Wing, crashed in a rural area near the large US airbase at Osan. , 60 kilometers from the border with North Korea. An official statement from the US Air Force ensures that the facts are being investigated.
The fighter was conducting a routine exercise when it crashed to the ground after the pilot managed to eject without serious injury. Moments after the accident, the F-16 burst into flames that local firefighters were involved in extinguishing, Gyeonggi Governor Kim Dong-yeon reported.
The F-16 remains one of the most in-demand combat aircraft. Ukraine is confident that the United States will finally approve the transfer of these fighter jets to fight Russia in airspace.
Over the past few decades, the F-16 has undergone numerous upgrades and has been manufactured under license in Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey and South Korea. To the options Viperdeveloped by Lockheed Martin -absorbed General Dynamics-, integrates advanced capabilities to better interoperate with fifth-generation fighters F-35 y F-22.
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