President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday visited the Air Force Flight Training Command at Kaohsiung’s Gangshan Air Base in a bid to bolster the nation’s capability to train fighter pilots.
The command’s upgrade from being an Air Force Academy subordinate to a headquarters under the service came a day after the Taitung-based 7th Flight Training Wing was reflagged as the 7th Tactical Fighter Wing.
The creation of the training unit would speed up the nation’s combat pilot training and qualification process, Tsai said during an inspection, adding that the command is expected to function seamlessly with the academy sharing the same base.
Photo: RITCHIE B. TONGO, EPA-EFE
The Flight Training Command’s founding marks a new epoch in the air force’s pilot training program, switching from utilizing three aircraft types, Beechcraft T-34, AIDC AT-3 and F-5 trainers, to a two-stage one utilizing Beechcraft T-34s and AIDC T-5 Brave Eagles, the service said.
Brave Eagles — the indigenous developed advanced trainer jet — would provide a better training platform for pilots expected to handle modern high-performance military aircraft being introduced, including the Lockheed Martin F-16V, it said.
Decreasing the number of trainer aircraft types will enable a reduction in valuable instruction time spent on familiarizing trainees across three distinct platforms, air force flight instructor Major Wang Tzu-hung (王次宏) said.
The focus of the flight training program is to produce a sufficient number of trainers with dual qualifications as instructors and fighter pilots, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Huang Wen-hsuan (黃文軒), a trainer of trainers, said.
The new fighter pilot training program would see pilots initially receive training on foundational flight skills, formation flying and basic air maneuvers in T-34s, then transition to T-5s for interception and advanced air combat maneuvers, he said.
The air force has seven combatant wings utilizing AIDC F-CK-1s, Dassault Mirage 2000s and Lockheed Martin F-16 jets in addition to Flight Training Command and Songshan Air Base Command, which operates the presidential airplane.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS