Taiwan says delayed US F-16s to start arriving this year

Deliveries of delayed F-16V fighter jets for Taiwan will begin this year with production at “full capacity”, the island’s defence ministry said after senior defence officials visited the United States. Taiwan, which faces a rising military threat from China, has complained of repeated delays to weapons ordered from the U.S., the most important international backer and arms supplier for the island, which Beijing claims as its territory. The United States in 2019 approved an $8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the island’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Deputy Minister Hsu Szu-chien, accompanied by Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff Tien Chung-yi, visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16V assembly line in South Carolina on Monday to view the first aircraft, Taiwan’s defence ministry said in a statement late on Saturday. Deliveries will begin this year, the ministry said