Taiwan to upgrade four F-16s next year
ROC Central News Agency
2016/11/17 19:14:40
Taipei, Nov. 17 (CNA) Taiwan will begin the domestic upgrade of its F-16 fighter jets early next year, with four jets expected to be upgraded in 2017, the Air Force said on Thursday.
The NT$110 billion (US$3.46 billion) program to upgrade the nation's 144 F-16 A/B jets is the largest and most important upgrade ever undertaken by the Air Force.
Two ROC F-16 fighter jets are currently being upgraded at manufacturer Lockheed Martin in the United States and have been fitted with active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.
As a result, the first domestic upgrade of an F-16s could begin by Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC) early next year.
Air Force Command Chief of Staff Fan Ta-wei (范大維) said at a meeting of the Foreign and National Defense Committee that the upgrade of the ROC's F-16s to F-16V specifications should be completed by 2023.
(By Claudia Liu and Lilian Wu)
Enditem/AW
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