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The Taiwanese defense minister said the delivery of F-16 fighter jets from the United States was delayed due to supply chain issues. The island’s defense ministry is also said to be at work to resolve the issues.
On Thursday, Taiwanese defense minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said that the delivery of 66 advanced F-16 fighter aircraft by the US is going to be delayed citing supply chain disruptions. Chiu added that the defense ministry is already working on the problem in order to minimize the damage and make up for losses. The ministry said that the first round of aircraft was originally supposed to be delivered in the fourth quarter of this year but has since been delayed to the third quarter of next year due to disruptions to the supply chain in connection to the pandemic.
Chiu told reporters outside the Taiwanese parliament that Taipei has asked Washington to “make up the deficiency,” including prioritizing deliveries of spare parts for the existing fleet in Taiwan. Chiu added that the ministry is using different channels on the matter and that they are still expecting to receive the full order by 2026.
In 2019, the US approved an $8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan which would bring the island nation’s fleet to over 200 jets, the largest in Asia, to bolster its defenses. Taiwan has also been converting 141 F-16A/B jets into the F-16V type and ordering an additional 66 F-16Vs that have new avionics, weapons, and radar systems.
The island nation has complained since last year of the delay in deliveries of US weapons, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as manufacturers have since diverted their supplies to Ukraine in the ongoing war, which has also concerned US lawmakers.
Last week, British Foreign Minister James Cleverly said China must be more transparent on its increased military buildup and warned that keeping such information undisclosed would pose the risk of a miscalculation.
In a keynote speech at the Mansion House banquet in London, Cleverly said that between 2014 and 2018, Beijing launched new warships that exceeded the number of the British Royal Navy’s active fleet as well as its establishing of military outposts on artificial and unoccupied islands in the South China Sea and beyond.
Cleverly said China must be more transparent about the “doctrine and intent behind its military expansion.”
