The shuttered Taoyuan Air Base should be reopened to meet the challenges posed by China’s increased incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) said yesterday.
“It takes 15 minutes for our Mirage fighter jets to take off from the Hsinchu Air Base to reach the area of Chinese intrusion,” Chu said.
“If our fighter jets were launched from the Taoyuan base, they would only need six minutes to reach our air defense zone’s northeast sector,” he said. “We urgently need to bolster air defense capacity for northern Taiwan, so the Taoyuan Air Base must be reopened.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“It is a vital national security and military issue, and we must start now to renovate its runways and air tower facilities, to reinstate it as an air force base, so that it can reduce the burden of defending northern Taiwan,” he said.
The air force said in a news release that all military installations must be carefully assessed and meet current national security needs.
Situated southeast of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan Air Base dates back to 1944.
It was used for Taiwan and US air force missions during the Cold War, including Taiwan-US reconnaissance missions by the Black Cat Squadron, which flew U-2 surveillance aircraft over China from 1961 to 1974.
The air force stopped using it in 2007, when it became the Taoyuan Naval Base. It closed down in August 2013 and was designated a historic monument in 2016.
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