Free Republic

Taipei, July 14 (CNA) Taiwan's Air Force celebrated the 25th anniversary of taking its first delivery of locally made IDF fighter jets at an air base in Taichung, and pledged to continue to beef up its capabilities in the face of the military threat from China. Lt. Gen. Hu Kai-hung (胡開宏), deputy commander of the Air Force, said at the ceremony that Taiwan has faced many difficulties in procuring advanced weapons systems from other countries due to the international situation, meaning that Taiwan has also had to develop home-grown defense capabilities. The development, production, delivery and commission of the IDFs...

Taiwan upgrades its warplanes Jun 25, 2011, 15:05 GMT Taipei - Taiwan is to spend 17 billion Taiwan dollars (586 million US dollars) on upgrading its Indigenous Defence Fighter (IDF) warplanes, a newspaper reported Saturday. The Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) said it would unveil the 70 air force jets which have been modified on Thursday, the United Daily News reported. Taiwan has 130 warplanes. Modifications would give the jets double the carrying capacity for Sky-Bow missiles to four. The Taiwan Air Force fleet also consists of 150 F16A/Bs and 60 Mirage 2000-5s. According to the report, Taiwan fast-tracked the...