Taiwan's first two F-16Vs delivered are stranded in Hawaii... Pay attention to the impact of the US-China summit

Two out of a total of 66 arrived in Hawaii last month... Tied up for no specific reason

(Taipei = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Cheol-moon = Taiwanese media, including the China Times, reported on the 27th, citing sources, that the US-China summit held at the US White House on the 24th will be the first test to gauge the impact of the US arms sales to Taiwan, and whether the new F-16V will be delivered to Taiwan by the end of this month.

The source said that Taiwan's Minister of National Defense (Minister) Kuri-hsiung predicted that the first of the 66 F-16V Block 70 fighter jets purchased by Taiwan would arrive in Taiwan by the end of September, the third quarter of this year.

The source explained that although Director Koo disclosed this information in questions asked by the Legislative Yuan (National Assembly) in March and June, the first two F-16Vs that arrived in Hawaii last August were stuck without the specific reason being disclosed.

The China Times analyzed that whether the first delivery of F-16Vs arrives in Taiwan by the end of this month could be a 'touchstone' to gauge the extent to which this summit has influenced the United States' support for Taiwan's weapons and implementation of the existing military regime.

At the same time, if the first delivery of the F-16V arrives in Taiwan by the end of this month as scheduled, it will symbolize that the negotiations and communication between Taiwan and the United States so far are not an 'air ticket', and if there is a change in the delivery date, it is predicted that concerns will increase about the delivery period of Patriot surface-to-air missiles and Harpoon missiles in the future.

Li Chi-ze, an international relations and diplomacy scholar and associate professor at National Changhua Normal University, said that it does not appear that the United States accepted China's request to take a stance against Taiwan's independence at the U.S.-China summit.

However, he pointed out that there are concerns that Taiwan's security costs will increase if the approval schedule for arms sales to Taiwan worth about $14 billion (approximately 19 trillion won), including Patriot (PAC-3) interceptor missiles, is aligned with the flow of U.S.-China negotiations.

Previously, in 2019, the United States approved Lockheed Martin's plan to sell 66 F-16Vs worth $8 billion (about 10.8 trillion won) to Taiwan.

The F-16V, which Taiwan plans to introduce, is the latest version of the F-16 and is equipped with the latest active scanning phased array (AESA) radar and tactical data link (Link-16), allowing it to track more than 20 targets at the same time. It can be equipped with a variety of advanced air-to-air, air-to-ground, and air-to-ship weapons.

Taiwan is expected to increase its fleet of F-16 fighter jets to about 200 once all 66 F-16Vs are delivered, allowing it to effectively respond to Chinese military aircraft that frequently enter Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) or cross the midline of the Taiwan Strait.