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Taiwan, U.S. finalize options for F-16 A/B upgrade: Defense News

ROC Central News Agency

2011/08/19 12:29:45

Washington, Aug. 18 (CNA) The United States and Taiwan have finalized the price and availability options for a midlife upgrade package for Taiwan's existing F-16 A/B jet fighter fleet, according to a U.S. defense magazine.

The deal was struck between a U.S. Department of Defense delegation and Taiwanese military authorities during the biennial Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition (TADTE), which took place Aug. 11-14, the Defense News said.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report said the US$4.2 billion upgrade package for 146 F-16 A/Bs has been renamed a "retrofit" to reduce complaints from China, which has been pushing the U.S. to discontinue arms sales to Taiwan in line with what it claimed was a stipulation in their 1982 joint communiqu?

To further placate China, the Defense News said, the F-16 A/B retrofit will be released incrementally rather than as a total package under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program.

The weekly also cited TADTE sources as reporting that if the U.S. authorities do not approve the sale of active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar to Taiwan, Northrop Grumman's APG-68(V)9 mechanical radar would be offered as a substitute to replace the APG-66(V)3 mechanical radar currently installed on the F-16 A/Bs.

It is believed that if AESA radars are used in an F-16 A/B retrofit, the upgraded jet fighters would be better able to track the activities of China's J-20 stealth fighters.

According to the Defense News, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are vying to supply AESA radar for the Taiwan F-16 A/B retrofit deal. Northrop's Scalable Agile Beam Radar and Raytheon's Advanced Combat Radar are competing to replace the current APG-66(V)3 mechanical radar, the weekly said.

It also quoted TADTE sources as saying that the U.S. would approve the F-16 A/B retrofit with the AESA radar, but not Taiwan's request to buy 66 F-16 C/D fighters.

However, U.S. officials have not confirmed the report. (By Tony Liao and Sofia Wu) enditem /pc