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Taiwan
ChinaMilitary

Who will fly Taiwan’s fighter jets? Pilot shortage dire as PLA tests defences

  • The island needs at least 100 more F-16 pilots by 2026 to operate planes it agreed to buy, but its air force netted only 21 from 2011 to 2019
  • Declining birth rates, high-profile crashes and vision requirements among the factors thwarting recruitment

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A Taiwanese air force pilot in front of a F-16V fighter jet during a military training exercise in Chiayi County, Taiwan on Jan. 5. Photo: Bloomberg
Bloomberg

If any war were to break out between the US and mainland China, one trigger may be the increasingly frequent fighter-jet encounters near Taiwan.

Almost every day, Taiwanese fighter pilots hop in their American-made F-16s to intercept People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes screaming past their territory. The encounters probe the island’s defences and force the pilots on both sides to avoid mistakes that could lead to a crisis that spins out of control.

“I didn’t know whether they would fire at me,” said retired Colonel Mountain Wang, recounting a tense five-minute confrontation he had with PLA jets more than a decade ago. “You have to be highly alert, and not lead to any accident with unintended consequences.”

The risk is even higher now, and not just because Beijing is sending more jets with more experienced pilots ever closer to the main island of Taiwan. On Wednesday, Beijing deployed 22 warplanes across the US-imposed median line over the Taiwan Strait, the most since the island’s military began disclosing data in 2020.
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The sorties were part of a flurry of military exercises that the PLA held around Taiwan in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s landmark trip to Taipei earlier this week. The PLA fired 11 missiles into waters near the island on Thursday, with Japan saying late on Thursday that it estimated some of those missiles flew over Taiwan – which would be a new first.

But a longer-term problem for Taiwan’s military is its dire shortage of pilots. While Taipei is protected by a relatively large and modern fleet of fighter jets, the democratically governed island could need as many as 50 years at the current rate to train enough pilots to fill the cockpits of the jets they expect to get by the middle of this decade.

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People living in mainland China’s Xiamen city react to PLA drills and Pelosi visit to Taiwan

People living in mainland China’s Xiamen city react to PLA drills and Pelosi visit to Taiwan

Taiwan might not have that kind of time. American military commanders estimate Chinese President Xi Jinping may have the capability to take action across the Taiwan Strait in as soon as five years, and the daily incursions are wearing down the island’s pilots and the jets they fly.

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