Taiwan F-16V Cometh
Will China Wait for Full Operational Capability (FOC)?
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11 April 2025 (Friday)
Taiwan F-16V Cometh
Will China Wait for Full Operational Capability (FOC)?
By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德
TAIPEI - We live in a magical movie world that embraces fast food logic for war. Sure, the first of Taiwan’s F-16Vs have rolled off the assembly line and will begin delivery shortly.
Final delivery expected by the end of 2026.
Even though Taiwan will receive them momentarily does not mean they are combat capable, perhaps in 2027.
When they arrive they will assume Initial Operational Capability (IOC) until they reach Full Operational Capability (FOC) for combat. So it could be a problem for Taiwan and lesser so for China until FOC for all 66 fighters is initiated.
“It all depends on what they plan to use them for and what the full kit is (weapons /sensors) and then logistics and maintenance training. They already have a foothold on the F-16C/D,” a source said both in a serious and humorous tone, “so I would imagine 6 to 9 months (after capitulation)”,
Nor would China want them combat effective too soon. It would just make things harder for them to take the island.
China exhibited a massive naval and air power show of force a few weeks ago, and if these annual Spring/Fall exercises are as exponential as they appear, I would have to agree with my source that Taiwan might not have them fully up to FOC in time for the invasion.
They will replace the F-5 Tigers at Chihhang (Taitung) Air Base on the southeast coast of the island. If you are not familiar with the F-5s, they were the aircraft used to drop napalm in the movie Apocalypse Now shot in the Philippines.
Though the F-5s will be phased out finally, the F-16Vs will take their spots: 7th Tactical Fighter Wing, 7th Tactical Fighter Group (TFG) (Dragons), 44th TFG, and the 45th TFG (Black Panthers). Group = Squadron.
The Taitung base is a honeycomb of bunkers and aircraft shelters making it extra difficult to destroy.
The location is also extremely important as China has been pushing into the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan and the Philippines via naval patrols and combat air patrols (CAP).
Click to Enlarge:
With 66 new F-16Vs, China will also have to contend with new mid-life upgrades to 140 older F-16A/B Block 20 fighters to C/Ds, and 129 Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF) F-CK-1 A/B Ching-Kuo to IDF F-CK-1 C/D Xiong Ying.
Not to forget the legacy 52 French Dassault Mirage 2000 fighters still in operation at (Hsinchu Air Base), though operationally fading fast. There have been complaints from the Taiwan Air Force over billing issues regarding parts/components and upgrades; described as exorbitant.
All three legacy aircraft were procured during the 1990s. Without upgrades to the Mirage fighters, local defense sources have debated everything from mothballing, totally scrapping the aircraft, or converting them into autonomous drones for aerial target practice. The fighters are based as Hsinchu Air Base, home of the 2nd Tactical Fighter Wing, 41st Tactical Fighter Group (TFG), 42nd TFG (Cobras), 48th TFG (Training).
Taiwan has just completed the Phoenix Rising upgrade program for 71 F-CK-1 A/B Ching-Kuo IDFs to F-CK-1 C/D Xiong Ying IDFs.
Readers should note that the IDF can only use indigenous built weapons, and not U.S. weapons. These weapons are built by the Aerospace Industrial Defense Corporation (AIDC) and the ChungShan Institute of Science and Technology (NSCIST).
These weapons include air-to-air (Tien Chien/Sky Arrow) missile, anti-radiation (radar) missile (Tien Chien 2A), air-to-ground cruise missile (Wan Chien/Ten Thousand Swords), and anti-ship (Hsiung Feng/Brave Wind) missiles.
In Taiwan there has been significant excitement in defense circles resulting in a variety of new fan patches celebrating the 139 F-16A/B Block 20 - F-16V (Block 70) mid-life upgrades and the 66 new F-16V fighter aircraft (see below):