The deal, which was signed on Friday, comes because China has increased pressure on the island, which Beijing considers an inseparable part of its territory.
Friday’s announcement was made on the United States Department of Defense’s website, under the section for renewed contacts. The post said the U.S. Air Force was awarding a contract to Lockheed Martin, the maker of the F-16, for 90 of the aircraft as part of U.S. foreign military sales.
No customer for the purchase was named, but a U.S. State Department source confirmed that a Taiwanese order approved by the Trump administration a year ago was part of the deal.
The other 24 planes are expected to depart for Morocco. Final deliveries are expected by 2026.
The new F-16s, known as the F-16V or Viper, will be manufactured at Lockheed Martin factories in Greenville, South Carolina, and Fort Worth, Texas. They will be the latest, upgraded models of the single-engine aircraft that first flew with the US Air Force in the late 1970s. They will join about 140 others already in the Taiwanese fleet.
“The sale of F-16s to Taiwan sends a strong message about the US commitment to security and democracy in the Indo-Pacific,” said Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of New York and Republican rep. Michael McCaul of Texas in a joint statement last August.
Later that week, the People’s Liberation Army announced that it had carried out military drills at both the northern and southern ends of the Taiwan Strait. The exercises were “a necessary movement that responded to the current security situation in the Straits of Taiwan and were intended to protect national sovereignty,” said PLA Eastern Theater Command spokesman senior colonist Zhang Chunhui.
And on Saturday, China’s tabloid of the state Global Times published a critique of F-16 sales.
The “red line” is any Taiwanese movement for Beijing’s independence.
But Drew Thompson, a former U.S. Department of Defense official now at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, said Friday’s announcement was procedurally more than provocative because Lockheed Martin had to set up subcontractors to get specific components to make the aircraft Taipei’s specifications.
“It’s a bit like buying a car. This was to finalize the options that Taiwan wanted,” Thompson said.
A case for stabilization
Australian military analyst Peter Layton of the Griffith Asia Institute said F-16 sales could actually help stabilize the situation in Taiwan, at least from a military standpoint.
“The sale will act to maintain the balance in air combat broadly” between Taiwanese (ROCAF) and Chinese (PLAAF) air forces, Layton said.
“The PLAAF has significantly more fighter jets than the ROCAF, but in a conflict the ROCAF will defend and attack the PLAAF. The difference in roles and the fact that the ROCAF will operate over its own airports compensates for the difference in numbers,” he said.
“The extra F-16s will simply keep the balance in the early 2030s,” Layton said.
While the US has long supplied arms to Taiwan as part of Taiwan’s Relations Act of 1979, Beijing has often exercised such vigor, protesting as a violation of China’s sovereignty, despite the Chinese Communist Party calling for has never ruled the island.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Monday reiterated these claims.
“The action has seriously damaged China’s sovereignty and security interests and seriously damaged the standards of international relations,” Zhao said.
A Pentagon report in May 2019 warned that Taiwan’s traditional military advantages over Beijing in the event of a conflict over the crossing disappeared in the face of China’s ongoing efforts to modernize its army.
But since then, the Trump administration has revamped arms sales to Taiwan, including Abrams battleship tanks, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and earlier this year, new torpedoes.
Layton said Monday that the upgrade of the Patriot rocket is working in conjunction with the F-16 sale to maintain stability across the Strait of Taiwan.
“The Patriot and F-16V sales fit well together to support Taiwan’s air defenses without being confrontational to China,” he said.
A favorite of pilots
Thompson said the F-16s would be a morale booster for Taiwanese pilots who would probably be the first to fight the PLAAF in all possible conflicts.
He noted that the fighter can function in many roles, including rocket launching at ships, taking out enemy radar, as well as in air-to-air confrontations.
“This is a very capable aircraft. It’s small, it’s cheap, it’s easy to fly. Pilots love it,” Thompson said.
And while it’s not a stealth fighter, it does have a smaller radar average than previous versions of the F-16, making it harder to aim, he said.
However, the deal leaves Taipei with a hole to fill its forces – pilots, said Meia Nouwens, China Defense Policy Research Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
“This sale will recruit Taiwan 107 additional pilots. And in the past nine years, Taiwan has increased its F-16 pilots by only 21 officers,” she said. “We will have to keep an eye on him here for years to come.”
The finalization of the sale also makes Beijing unlikely to make more headway with Taipei than it already is, Thompson said.
In arms sales, “China has not punished Taiwan. China is trying to punish the United States,” he said.
“I do not see why this would be any different.”
CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Ryan Browne, Shawn Deng and Sherisse Pham contributed to this report.
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