US hands over first long-awaited F-16 to Taiwan

Taiwan's Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina, Report informs via Taipei Times.

“We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event.

The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs.

The batch of Lockheed Martin fighter jets would be used by the 7th Tactical Fighter Wing, a new air force unit to defend Taiwan proper’s eastern region.

In January, President William Lai said during an inspection of the unit that two out of its three tactical groups had been staffed and were waiting for delivery of the jets.

The F-16C/D Block 70 is expected to be the final model of Lockheed Martin F-16s, as the US Air Force and US allies replace their legacy aircraft with F-35 stealth fighters.

The main features of F-16C/D Block jets are AN/APG-83 active electronically scanned arrays, AN/ALQ-254(V)1 all-digital electronic warfare suites, conformal fuel tanks, and new mission computers, cockpits and interface systems.

The fighters are capable of firing AIM-120 and AIM-9 air-to-air missiles and an assortment of ground attack munitions.

The F-16C/D’s ground-attack weapons include anti-radiation missiles, GPS-guided bombs, and one of Taiwan’s latest acquisitions, the long-range AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon glide bombs.