President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) lauded a Taiwan-United States joint venture on Tuesday for operating an F-16 maintenance center in Taichung, which has so far enabled more than 100 spare parts of the U.S.-made fighter jets to be repaired locally since the center began operations two years ago.

During an inspection tour at the center, Tsai said the efforts made by the center, Taiwan’s military, and Taiwan-based companies since the inauguration of the center in Aug. 2020 have now made it easier for Taiwan to significantly boost the availability of its F-16s.

The center is a joint project between Lockheed Martin, an American global security company, and Taiwan’s state-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC, 漢翔航空工業).

Previously, Taiwan’s Air Force, for which F-16 jets serve as its backbone, often faced a shortage of spare parts because it had to obtain them from the U.S., making it time-consuming and extremely expensive, according to Tsai.

The operation of the center has significantly shortened the time required for F-16 maintenance, contributing to a more stable Air Force combat readiness amid the rising Chinese military threat in aerial space surrounding Taiwan, Tsai said.

“The center is a concrete symbol of the joint Taiwan-U.S. defense industry,” she said.

In the face of Chinese “authoritarian expansionism,” the president pledged that Taiwan will continue to work closely with democratic partners on national security issues while strengthening the nation’s self-defense capabilities and upgrading its aerospace industry.

During Tsai’s inspection, a total of 63 Taiwanese companies that have working relationships with the Air Force also gave presentations about their work.

Meanwhile, AIDC and another 10 companies on Tuesday have also been awarded Airworthiness Certificates by the Air Force, meaning the spare parts they produce have been certified for use by Taiwan’s military.

Taiwan is currently upgrading all of its 140 F-16 A/Bs to the more advanced F-16V model, with the addition of more advanced avionics such as APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar and a Helmet Mounted Cueing System, as well as other flight management and electronic warfare systems.

Taiwan has also purchased 66 new F-16V fighter jets from the U.S., and delivery is expected to start in 2023, according to the Air Force.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel