Taiwan has taken delivery of 200 US AIM-120 missiles to boost defenses against China, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday.
"The AIM-120 missiles are stored at the Hualien airbase in eastern Taiwan and at the Chiayi airbase in southwestern Taiwan. The missile made its debut at the Hualien airbase on Tuesday when two F-16 jets, each fitted with two AIM-120s, conducted a training flight over the Pacific Ocean," the paper said.
The paper printed a photo of an F-16 fitted with two AIM-120s and a photo of an AIM-120 missile.
Taiwan asked to buy AIM-120 missiles for installation on the Air Force's 150 F-16s to counter a threat posed by China's Sukhoi-30 warplanes, which carry Russian AA-12 missiles.
Like the AA-12, the AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles are active-radar-guided, with a maximum range of 50km.
The US approved the sale of 200 AIM-120 missiles to Taiwan in 2000. To avoid angering China, Washington decided it would not deliver the missiles until Taiwan faced a military threat.
"After the Chinese Air Force test-fired AA-12 missiles in June last year, the US agreed to deliver the AIM-120 missiles to Taiwan," the paper said.
Taiwanese airmen test-fired the AIM-120 missiles in the US at the end of last year, it said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS