While the first 4 Taiwanese F-16s retrofitted to the F16V standard have just finished their evaluations to return to active service, the authorities of the independent island presented the new locally designed “Brave Eagle” advanced jet trainer, intended to replace the AT-3 and F5E for the training of fighter pilots in its Air Force. Designed and manufactured locally, the new aircraft will be produced in 66 units by 2026, and can be transformed into a weapon aircraft in the event of conflict. The program, which began in 2017, will ultimately have cost $2,1 billion and generated 1200 jobs. AIDC, the industrialist in charge of the program which has already designed and manufactured the F-CK1 Ching-kuo, a twin-engine fighter derived from the F16, believes that the aircraft will be able to find outlets on the export market which represents, according to him, 400 devices in the coming years.
Designed to train Taiwanese fighter pilots, the Brave Eagle is similar in its cockpit and in its appearance to the F-CK1-C/D Hsiang Sheng and the F16V, aircraft which will form the battle corps of the Air Force Taiwan in the coming decade. With 102 F-CK1 C/D, modernized version of the F-CK1 currently in service and having reinforced electronics and anti-radar coating, and 180 F16V, 114 in modernization and 66 acquired from Washington for $8 billion, as well as 46 Mirage 2000-5EI, also modernized, Taiwan will have, by the second half of the next decade, one of the largest air forces in the South Pacific theater. Its devices will, moreover, be capable of confronting Chinese devices, even the most modern ones such as the J10C, the J16 and the 20th generation J5.
Despite this, Taiwanese Defense Minister Yen De-fa indicated during parliamentary hearings that the country continued to need to acquire F35s to ensure its defense against surrounding threats (understanding China), and that it fully intended to obtain authorization from Washington to make this request a reality. A few months ago, the country's authorities had already indicated their intention to acquire F35Bs, the short takeoff and landing version of the Lockheed aircraft, not to equip an aircraft carrier, but to be able, if necessary, to move and operate the aircraft outside the air bases which will, in all likelihood, be the target of intensive attacks in the event of high intensity conflict, and which could deprive the island of a good part of its firepower. By deploying the F35Bs on rough terrain, consisting of sections of highway, or even supermarket parking lots, the Taiwanese Air Force hopes to be able to maintain a response capacity to maintain air superiority over the Island, and thus hinder adverse naval or airmobile operations. A strategy which is reminiscent of that which prevailed in the design of the British Harrier during the Cold War.
With reaffirmed support from the American authorities for the Defense of the Island's independence, the Taiwanese authorities have decided to strengthen, as much as possible, the country's defense capabilities in the face of possible, some would say probable, military action. Chinese in the more or less long term. The commercial tensions between Washington and Beijing provide, as such, the perfect framework for quickly carrying out strategic acquisitions of American technologies, since threats of Chinese economic retaliation have lost much of their effectiveness while every month, hundreds of billions of dollars of trade are targeted by new import taxes. If these tensions were to persist, Taiwan could well become, after Japan and South Korea, the third pillar of American defense policy in the Pacific, to contain Chinese ambitions.
