F-16V jets purchased by Taiwan would be able to produce more thrust than the upgraded F-16A/B jets currently used by the air force, enabling them to have more weapon-mounting capacity, a defense expert said on Saturday.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research researcher Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌) said the new F-16C/D Block 70 jets are equipped with a General Electric F110 engine.
The afterburning turbofan engine has 13,154.18kg of thrust, far more than the 10,432.64kg maximum thrust of the current F-16 engines, he said, adding that greater thrust means more weapon-mounting capacity.
Photo: Screen grab from Phil Hamby’s X account
Shu made the comments in response to media queries about the difference between the F-16s and the 66 F-16Vs ordered from the US, the first of which was unveiled at a delivery ceremony at Lockheed Martin’s production base in South Carolina on Friday last week.
Photographs posted on X by US Congressman William Timmons showed that the ceremony was attended by Representative to the US Alexander Yui and Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝).
The jet in the picture is a two-seater F-16D model, Shu said.
It has an advanced active electronically scanned array radar and electronic warfare suite and comes with a US18E ejection seat.
It also has a larger air intake than the ones installed in the current F-16s, he said.
Taiwan purchased the 66 F-16Vs as part of an arms sale package approved in 2019 during US President Donald Trump’s first term in office.
The Ministry of National Defense said it expects to receive all the F-16C/D Block 70 jets by the end of next year, adding that the new jets would be deployed at the Taitung Air Base in eastern Taiwan.
The air force completed the upgrades of its more than 140 F-16A/B fleet to the F-16V in 2023.
The jets are equipped with more advanced avionics, including APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar, a helmet-mounted cueing system, and other flight management and electronic warfare systems.
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