Taiwan has received its first two new-build F-16V fighter jets, more than three years after deliveries of the 66-aircraft order were originally expected to begin.
The two F-16C Block 70 fighters, numbered 6727 and 6728, landed at Chihhang Air Base in Taitung on Friday after completing the final stages of their ferry flight from the United States through Hawaii and Guam.
The aircraft are part of an approximately US$8 billion package approved by the United States in 2019. Taiwan ordered 66 new F-16s from Lockheed Martin under the program, which will eventually take its F-16 fleet to more than 200 aircraft.
Deliveries were originally scheduled to begin in 2023, but the program suffered delays associated with production and software problems. The first aircraft was rolled out at Lockheed Martin's Greenville plant in South Carolina in March 2024 but remained in the United States for testing.
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The arrival of 6727 and 6728 therefore starts a delivery process that is already several years behind its original schedule. Taiwan's Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Friday that more than the first two aircraft will be delivered this year, although he did not specify how many.
Long stop in Hawaii
The two fighters had already left the continental United States in August. They departed for Hawaii and remained there for about a month and a half before resuming their journey this week.
The aircraft flew from Hawaii to Guam and then continued to Taiwan, supported by aerial refueling during the trans-Pacific ferry flight. They landed at Chihhang at around noon local time and will undergo a joint handover process involving Taiwanese and U.S. personnel.
Taiwan's Air Force said another 63 aircraft are currently on the production line in the United States. The service plans to progressively receive the fighters and conduct conversion training as additional aircraft become available.
New aircraft join upgraded F-16Vs
Taiwan already operates F-16Vs, but the aircraft delivered on Friday belong to a different procurement program. The existing fleet consists largely of F-16A/B fighters upgraded locally to the F-16V configuration under the Peace Phoenix Rising program.
Those aircraft received systems including the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 active electronically scanned array radar and updated mission computers and cockpit equipment.
The new fighters are factory-built F-16 Block 70 aircraft produced by Lockheed Martin in Greenville. They incorporate many of the same systems introduced on Taiwan's upgraded aircraft but are newly manufactured airframes with structural and equipment changes associated with the latest production standard.
Taiwan completed the upgrade of 139 existing F-16A/B fighters to the F-16V standard in 2023. Together with the 66 new aircraft, the two programs are intended to give the Taiwanese Air Force one of the world's largest F-16 fleets.
The arrival also gives Taiwan its first newly built fighter aircraft in nearly three decades. Its previous deliveries of new combat aircraft date from the 1990s, when the island received F-16A/Bs from the United States and Mirage 2000-5s from France.
