The air force last week signed two contracts with France for spare parts for the Dassault Mirage 2000 avionics and electric warfare suite and for pilot training worth NT$5.7 billion (US$185.82 million) and NT$35 million respectively, a Ministry of National Defense official said on Sunday.
The avionics and electronic warfare components contract is an open, four-year-and-two-months contract to be implemented from October next year, while the pilot training contract is a two-year deal that begins in November, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Sixty Mirage fighters were bought from France in a deal inked in November 1992 and all of the operable aircraft are deployed at the Hsinchu Air Base, the official said.
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration tried to negotiate a deal to replace the aging Mirages with the Dassault Rafale, but the project died when he left office, the official said.
Plans to upgrade the more than 20-year-old fighters has long been muddied by allegations of alleged arms sale kickbacks to the French government, the official added.
The Mirage 2000s are in urgent need of an upgrade to remain on par with the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) Indigenous Defense Fighter and the US-made Lockheed-Martin F-16, which have been heavily upgraded, so the military began talks with France to procure medium and short-range missiles, spare parts for avionics and electronic warfare systems and pilot training, the official said.
The AIDC has also signed a NT$15.7 billion contract to maintain and service two tactical fighter wings of Indigenous Defense Fighters starting in January next year, the official said.
The AIDC is already working on a NT$68.6 billion project to manufacture 66 advanced jet trainers, to be completed by 2028, as well as a NT$140.2 billion project to upgrade F-16s, the official said.
The government expects that the public capital injection and introduction of technologies will stimulate the nation’s aeronautics industry and strengthen its competitiveness on the international market, the official said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS