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Taiwan formally signed an settlement to purchase 66 of the most recent mannequin F-16 jets constructed by Lockheed Martin Corp., a transfer possible to additional inflame tensions between the US and China.
Taiwan’s buy of the F-16s marks the primary sale of superior fighter jets to the island since President George HW Bush introduced approval for 150 F-16s in 1992. A $62 billion determine introduced by the Pentagon on Friday is the higher restrict of quite a few contracts if all potential international clients positioned their most desired quantity over the last decade.
The transfer is probably going to be denounced by Beijing, despite the fact that the US first signaled its plans to approve the sale a yr in the past in an off-the-cuff notification to Congress and it might nonetheless be years earlier than the jets are delivered.
The announcement mentioned that work on the 90 jets doubtlessly to be bought below Friday’s announcement could be full by late 2026.
Company officers have beforehand mentioned they mission a marketplace for as many as 400 of the brand new F-16s.
When the deliberate sale was introduced in August final yr, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry instructed reporters that “U.S. arms sales to Taiwan severely violate the one-China principle.”
The spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, mentioned on the time that her authorities was urging the U.S. to “refrain” from promoting the “fighter jets to Taiwan and stop arms sales to, and military contact with, Taiwan. Otherwise, the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the U.S. will have to bear all the consequences.”
Since then, ties with the U.S. have solely frayed additional, with the 2 nations in a sequence of disputes starting from the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic to 5G expertise and Beijing’s tightening grip over Hong Kong. The Trump administration final month rejected China’s expansive maritime claims within the South China Sea, reversing a earlier coverage of not taking sides in such disputes. The U.S. Navy despatched an plane service strike group to the South China Sea on Friday to conduct maritime air protection operations.
In addition to Taiwan, Morocco is shopping for 24 F-16s jets within the first tranche of 90 plane that the Pentagon mentioned was valued at $4.9 billion. The Pentagon announcement didn’t title Taiwan or Morocco, however they’ve been recognized in a earlier assertion and had been confirmed Friday by an individual acquainted with the contract.
The new F-16s are being assembled at Lockheed’s new facility in Greenville, South Carolina, which opened in April 2019. The contracting mechanism utilized by the Pentagon “will facilitate faster contract awards and greater pricing clarity for our foreign military partners,” Brian Brackens, an Air Force spokesman, mentioned in an announcement to Bloomberg News earlier than the contract announcement.
“Taiwan and Morocco are expected to be the first two partner nations that will utilize this contract,” Brackens mentioned.
The Taiwan F-16s will likely be outfitted with a top-line hearth management radar made by Northrop Grumman Corp. Called the APG-83, it will permit precision-guided munitions to be fired at higher distances, mentioned an official acquainted with the main points.
Lockheed Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Possenriede instructed analysts on a July 21 earnings name that the corporate was anticipating a “quite large” F-16 order “that should get announced sometime this quarter” wherein “the marquee customer is Taiwan.”
The extra 90 F-16s would add to Lockheed’s present 38-aircraft backlog.
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