Taiwan grounds F-16s following second fighter accident in under a month
18 November, 2020
Taiwan's air force provides grounded its F-16 fleet after sacrificing a plane on an exercise objective, President Tsai Ing-wen explained on Wednesday (Nov 18), the next loss of a fighter jet in under a month at the same time of heightened missions to intercept Chinese aircraft.
While Taiwan's air force is well trained and well equipped, usually with US-made gear, it is dwarfed by China's. Beijing claims the democratic island as its and hasn't renounced the use of force to take it under Chinese control.
Last month, Taiwan's defence minister reported nearly US$900 million have been spent this year over scrambling the air force against Chinese incursions, describing the pressure they are facing as "great".
Late Tuesday, Taiwan's oxygen force said a good US-built F-16 vanished soon after removing from the Hualien oxygen base about the east coast about a routine training mission.
That followed the crash of an F-5 - a good jet which 1st entered service found in Taiwan in the 1970s - in late October.
Speaking to reporters, Tsai explained the air flow force had previously grounded the F-16 fleet for checks.
"I have got asked the defence ministry never to relax a little on defence and combat readiness to make sure national protection," she added.
The defence ministry called on media not to speculate on what happened to the F-16, adding that missions had a need to continue considering the ongoing threat from China.
"In response to the increasingly serious situation found in the Taiwan Strait, the armed service has continued to strengthen fight readiness training to ensure national protection," it said.
The increased loss of the F-16 is Taiwan's fourth armed service crash this season. In January, Taiwan's leading army official was among eight persons killed after a helicopter carrying them to visit soldiers crashed in a mountainous region close to the capital Taipei.
The United States last year approved an US$8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the island's F-16 fleet to a lot more than 200 jets, the major in Asia.
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