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Cabinet to decide on IDF upgrade project next month: MND

ROC Central News Agency

Taipei, July 19 (CNA) The Executive Yuan has yet to decide on a project aimed at upgrading Taiwan-made indigenous defense fighters (IDFs) , a Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokeswoman said Saturday.

"As far as I know, the Executive Yuan will only make a final decision by the end of August," Lisa Chi said.

On Friday, the last day of its first session, the Legislative Yuan approved the budget for state-owned enterprises but also passed a resolution to stop the project immediately.

The resolution was proposed by Legislator Lin Chang-min and his ruling Kuomintang colleagues, who were suspicious that state-owned Aerospace Industry Development Corp. (AIDC) approved the NT$10 billion (US$327.86 million) upgrade project within a mere five minutes at a board meeting March 21.

The IDF was developed by AIDC in cooperation with General
Dynamics.

AIDC, which developed the IDFs, would be the main contractor responsible for project.

The lawmakers said they suspected serious irregularities, such as kickbacks, may have been involved in the board's hasty approval of the project as it came just one day before the March 22 presidential election.

But Chi said Saturday the upgrade project would proceed as scheduled.

She explained that the MND submits all projects to the Executive Yuan and that after the IDF project was submitted to the Executive Yuan, the latter requested clarification on certain details of the plan.

The MND has prepared a response and sent it to the Executive Yuan and is not halting the project as reported, she added.

Taiwan began to develop the IDF in 1980, when the U.S. was unwilling to provide it with F-16s. Taiwan built 130 IDFs with the help of defense contractor General Dynamics, which manufactures the F-16.

In 1992, Taiwan succeeded in ordering 150 F-16 A/Bs from the U.S. and 60 Mirage 2000-5s from France.

As the IDFs are now more than 20 years old, the AIDC launched the Hsiang Chan Project to upgrade the fighter. (By Lilian Wu) enditem/ls