Taiwan’s air force gets second Brave Eagle jet trainer as cross-strait tensions rise

It’s seen as one of the world’s most advanced training aircraft, researcher says, with local planemaker AIDC expected to complete the order of 66 by 2026
Beijing is ratcheting up its intimidation campaign against the island, including by sending more than 900 warplanes into its air defence zone this year

Taiwan

Lawrence Chungin Taipei

Published: 9:00pm, 22 Dec 2021

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Taiwan’s air force has taken delivery of a second Brave Eagle advanced jet trainer, which will help boost training for pilots responding to PLA warplanes that enter the island’s air defence zone as cross-strait tensions mount.

Beijing sees Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to take control of the island, by force if necessary. It has ramped up pressure on the self-ruled island, including by sending fighter jets and bombers into its air defence identification zone – more than 900 in the past year – on a near daily basis.

Taiwan’s defence ministry has said the People’s Liberation Army is now able to blockade the island’s supply lines by air and sea.

The growing military threats have pushed Taiwan’s air force to strengthen the flying and combat skills of its air squadrons, and it contracted local planemaker Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation to build 66 of the advanced jet trainers, or AJTs. The first was delivered last month and the remaining aircraft are expected by 2026.

Planemaker AIDC said in a statement that the second Brave Eagle, or Yung Yin, had taken off from the Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in central Taichung on Wednesday and landed at the Chih Hang Air Base in the eastern county of Taitung.

“AIDC has already set up a maintenance team at the Chih Hang Air Base to service the Yung Yin AJTs in the future,” said AIDC chairman Hu Kai-hung, who personally delivered the plane to the air force.

The Taiwanese AJT is seen as one of the world’s most advanced training aircraft, according to Su Tzu-yun, a researcher at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, a government think tank in Taipei.

That is because of its fully digitised cockpit and software designed to simulate a lead-in fighter trainer capable of firing missiles, Su said.

The trainer jets could also be used for backup in a conflict, he added.

“Once the AJTs are loaded with missiles and bombs they will be able to provide support for the navy and air force in a cross-strait conflict,” Su said.

The NT$66.8 billion (US$2.4 billion) AJT project was launched in 2017 to replace the decades-old AT-3 trainer aircraft and F-5E/F lead-in fighter trainers. A prototype was unveiled in 2019 and AIDC started mass-producing the planes last month.

The delivery came as Taiwan’s defence ministry on Wednesday said the PLA continued to stage war games near the island and had sent 940 warplanes into the southwest of its air defence zone since January.

In a report to the legislature, the defence ministry also noted that a PLA Y-20 aerial refuelling aircraft had recently joined a drill in the western Pacific for the first time, while the Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group had sailed through the Miyako Strait for a second high-seas training exercise this year.

“The PLA has gradually increased its capacity for air and sea control,” it said.

The ministry said the Chinese military build-up increased the threats to Taiwan but would also boost the PLA’s ability to keep foreign forces like the US from controlling major and strategic waterways in the region.

On Monday, Philip Davidson, former head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told Kyodo in an interview that the PLA’s training and plans for conflict scenarios in the Taiwan Strait were all aimed at stopping the US from intervening and coming to the island’s defence.

In March, Davidson warned that Beijing might try to take Taiwan by force within the next six years.

“I believe the next six years is going to be a very worrying time for Taiwan, the US, Japan, and all of East Asia,” Davidson told Kyodo. “I still believe that now.”

He called on the US and its allies to let Beijing know that it would pay a huge price if the PLA continued its aggression, not only in the Taiwan Strait but also in the South China and East China seas.