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| An F-16 (File Photo) |
By: Mike Yeo
MELBOURNE, Australia — Taiwan's state-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) has confirmed earlier local media reports that it started upgrading Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon jets for the country's Air Force.
In a statement, AIDC said four Taiwanese Air Force F-16s have entered its new facility in Taichung and the upgrading work on the fleet of 144 F-16s is expected to be completed within six years. AIDC Chairman Anson Liao had previously said that at full capacity, the new facility will be capable of upgrading 24 aircraft per year.
Taiwanese media had earlier reported that 10 F-16s were due to undergo upgrades at AIDC, but delays in software testing in the US means that only four aircraft will complete the upgrade program in Taiwan this year.
According to the original 2011 Defense Security Cooperation Agency Foreign Military Sale (FMS) notification, the Taiwanese F-16 upgrade request included Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars, new mission computers, Embedded Inertial Navigation Systems/Global Positioning Systems and the Terma ALQ-213(V) Electronic Warfare Management Units.
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