Taiwan's F16 purchase plan on hold until MND budget gets cleared

Published: Nov 29, 2006
Source: www.taipeitimes.com



The country's plan to purchase F-16C/D fighter jets from the US will not proceed until next year's defense budget is cleared by the Legislative Yuan, Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman Wu Chi-fang said yesterday.

Wu said that Taiwanese delegates once again raised the issue of the nation's plan to procure the US-made F-16C/D fighter jets in recent talks with their US counterparts during bilateral military exchanges in Washington.

However, Wu said that the US stance is that the planned F-16C/D procurement will not be dealt with until the legislature gives the green light to relevant budgets for a long-stalled arms purchase package, which includes six Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries, a squadron of 12 anti-submarine P-3C aircraft and eight diesel-electric submarines.continue..