TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's mammoth F-16 upgrade effort is making headway according to Ministry of National Defense (MND) sources. Per the department, four of the fighters upgraded to the latest 'V' standard are expected to be delivered back to the Taiwanese Air force in 2018 from state-run firm Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC). These four fighters were the initial units worked on to kick off the TWD110 billion ($3.68 billion) comprehensive fleet upgrade process in January 2017. To conduct the project locally the U.S.-based manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, sent engineers to Taiwan in 2017 to help train specialists at AIDC in how to perform the upgrades.
The upgrade and retrofit of the F-16 fleet involves the installation of AN/APG active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar on the aircraft, plus an embedded GPS/inertial navigation system, a Terma ALQ-213 electronic warfare management system, Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder and Paveway guided bombs, Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), and Textron Sensor-Fuzed Weapons.
The MND hopes to complete the comprehensive upgrade process by 2023, though initially the plans called for the program to run through 2028.
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