U.S. delivery of P-3C aircraft to Taiwan on schedule: military
ROC Central News Agency
2014/02/05 20:00:21
Taipei, Feb. 5 (CNA) The delivery of 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft on order from the United States is still on schedule, despite a malfunction discovered in late 2013, Taiwan's Air Force said Wednesday.
According to the Air Force, four of the P-3Cs arrived in Taiwan last year and five more P-3Cs will be delivered in 2014, with another three scheduled to arrive in 2015, when the P-3C fleet will be commissioned.
This total delivery timetable will not be delayed and could even be ahead of schedule, the Air Force said, adding that the planes will be based at Pingtung air base in southern Taiwan.
The Air Force was responding to problems with the delivery of one of the 12 P-3Cs last December due to a malfunction in its flight control system that forced the aircraft to land in Guam temporarily for a safety inspection during its flight to Taiwan.
The P-3Cs, said to be the most capable of Lockheed's P-3 sub-hunters, will replace the Air Force's fleet of 11 S-2T anti-submarine aircraft that has been in service for more than 40 years, the Air Force said.
The U.S. government approved the sale of the 12 P-3Cs, which are powered by T-56 turboprop engines, as well as related equipment and services, in 2007 and estimated the price of the package at US$1.96 billion.
(By Tang Pei-chun and Jeffrey Wu)
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