Republic of China Air Force - Equipment and Procurement

Equipment and Procurement

The ROCAF's inventory includes over 400 combat aircraft, the mainstay being the F-16 and F-CK-1 Ching-kuo, with the Mirage 2000s being its most formidable air-defence fighter. The older F-5s are gradually being phased out.

The development of the IDF (Indigenous Defense Fighter) was started in 1984 due to the United States refusing to sell the F-16 to the ROCAF. The IDF's maiden flight was made in 1989, and the plane entered service in 1994. The ROCAF was subsequently able to obtain the F-16 from the US and Mirage 2000-5 from France.

The ROCAF's main supplier of equipment is the United States, which also assists in the training of some ROCAF pilots at Luke AFB in Arizona.

In January 2006, the Air Force announced it wanted to buy planes with VSTOL capability, especially the US F-35. It also expressed an interest in upgrading its current F-16s and Mirages, possibly even purchasing second-hand F-15s. However, the US rejected the sale of F-35s or F-15s. There were no media reports as to how France responded. A Pentagon report has said that given that the PRC would probably seek to destroy Taiwan's airfields in the first stages of any attack, the F-35B STOVL fighter would be vital for Taiwan's defense.

In mid 2006, the Air Force announced plans to buy 66 F-16 C/D Block 52 aircraft from the US for $3.1 billion USD. On October 2, 2006, the US said that it would not allow the purchase of the 66 F-16s at that time. According to sources cited by National Defense Minister Lee Jye, the US stance was that until a long-stalled arms purchase package consisting of six Patriot Missile Batteries, 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft and 8 conventional submarines cleared the legislature, it did not see the ROC as having a consistent military procurement plan and temporarily blocked the sale.

The Taiwanese Legislative Yuan approved the 2007 defence budget, which included funds for part of the arms purchases on June 16, 2007.

On February 28, 2007, the US Defense Department approved an order made by the ROC for 218 AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM missiles, as well as 235 AGM-65G2 Maverick missiles, associated launchers and other equipment. The total value of this order was revealed to be $421 million USD.

In June 2007, the Legislative Yuan approved the upgrade of the existing PAC-2 batteries to PAC-3 standard. In November, the Pentagon notified the US Congress of the Patriot upgrade order.

On August 10, 2007, a shipment of Harpoon anti-ship missiles was also authorised by the US Defense Department, valued at an estimated $125 million. Included in the package were 60 AGM-84L Block II missiles and 50 upgrade kits to bring the ROCAF's existing Harpoons up to Block II, Mark L standard.

On October 3, 2008, arms notifications were sent to Congress concerning, amongst other things, the sale of 330 PAC III missiles, 4 missile batteries, radar sets, ground stations and other equipment valued up to $3.1 billion USD, the upgrade of 4 E-2T aircraft to the Hawkeye 2000 standard and $334 million USD worth of spare parts for the ROCAF's F-16s, IDFs, F-5E/Fs and C-130s.

On January 28, 2010, ROCAF received first batch of new TC-2(V) BVR missiles ordered from CSIST. Believed to have new radar seeker and improved performance from the original missile entered service over 10 years ago.

On January 29, 2010, US government announced 5 notifications to US Congress for arms sales to Taiwan. Overall total 6.392 Billion USD, ROC Air Force will receive 3 PAC-3 batteries with 26 launchers and 114 PAC-3 missiles for 2.81 Billion.

On February 3, 2010, it was announced at Singapore Airshow that ROCAF had signed contract for 3 EC-225 SAR(Search-And-Rescue) helicopters that was award to Eurocopter back in December 2009 for 111 million USD, with option for 17 more EC-225 helicopter. Expect delivery of 3 EC-225 by October 2011. On November 26, 2011, the 3 EC-225 C-SAR helicopters were loaded on board an An-124 cargo plane and delivered to Chai-yi AB in Taiwan, and should press into service in July 1, 2012.

On August 15, 2011, it was reported that the US had once again deferred Taiwan's request to purchase 66 new F-16C/Ds but had offered a retrofit package for Taiwan's older F-16A/B's. A $5.3 billion upgrade package for ROCAF's existing F-16A/B fighters was announced on 21 September 2011. The upgrade budget was to be spread over 12 years, though the Ministry of Defense indicated that it would try to reduce the period. In November 2011, the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission recommended that new fighters be sold to the RoC. As of 2012, the MND was still haggling with the Pentagon over cost and local industry participation on the upgrade. After denying the RoC Air Force the funds needed to upgrade their jet engines, President Ma Ying-jeou said that he hoped that the upgraded fighters would have on par performance. Taiwan is also balking at the cost of the radar upgrade, as it does not want to be the lead customer who pays to develop the upgrade and also because they will be unable to afford both the upgrade and the new fighters, should these be offered. In response to a US House vote to force the sale of the C/D models, the ROC MND said that the upgrade package offered some superior capabilities over the C/D model aircraft and some defense officials have said that in light of the PRC's increasing capabilities, only the F-35 would be sufficient. In July 2012, Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. and Lockheed Martin announced plans to establish a maintenance and overhaul center in Taiwan to upgrade and maintain the F-16s in Taiwan without having to ship them back to the United States. In 2012 a letter of acceptance was agreed on for a merely US$3.8 billion deal that included the radars, electronic warfare, structural improvements and new weapons. The high cost of the fighter upgrade is causing other modernization priorities such as tanks to be pushed back.

On August 31, 2010, it was announced for next year's defense budget, ROCAF's "Medium Transport aircraft" plan to replace 12 B-1900 VIP/transport training aircraft, believed to be 6-8+ Lockheed C-27J, has been put on hold and might be axed, due to lack of budget. But will allocates 20+ million US dollars over next 4 years for quick runway repair. Other items mentioned including increases runways from 3 to 6 at Eastern Taiwan's 3 airbases, moving 2 I-HAWK batteries to Eastern Taiwan to protect those airbases, which will double to 4 batteries, and others.

On November 8, 2011, second pair of E-2T Hawkeye AEW(s/n 2501 and 2502) were loaded on ship and sent to US for upgrade to E-2C 2000. The first pair of E-2T (s/n 2503 and 2504) were sent to US in June 2010 and returned to Taiwan December 18, 2011, and will be return to service by end of the year.