Taiwan Loses Four Fighters in Under Six Months as Two F-5E Jets Crash

On March 22nd Taiwan’s air force, officially the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF), lost two F-5E Tiger II fighters after they crashed approximately 2.6km off the coast of Pingtung County to the south of the island. One pilot was pronounced dead in hospital after being found unconscious at sea, with the second having yet to be found. The two fighters are the third and fourth the ROCAF has lots to accidents in the past six months alone, with another F-5E crashing on October 29th followed by an F-16A which crashed less than a month later in November. Taiwan has one of the oldest fighter fleets of any economically developed territory in the world, with the F-5E and F-16A both being 1970s designs while its indigenous F-CK Ching Kuo and Mirage 2000 jets date back to the 1990s an 1980s respectively. Despite being relatively new and being fielded in small numbers, the Mirage 2000 has had an exceptionally high crash rate even by the standards of the Taiwanese fleet with over 10% of the aircraft having been lost. Poor manufacturing techniques in France, which among other things led to cracks in the airframes, are thought to be responsible. 

The F-5 and F-16 are the only American fighters in Taiwanese service, and operate alongside two squadrons of indigenous Ching Kuo fighters and a single squadron of Mirage 2000 fighters. Respective successors to the F-16A and the Ching Kuo, namely the ‘4+ generation’ F-16V and the Brave Eagle jet, are both currently on order and are expected to begin replacing Mirage 2000 and F-5E jets from 2023. The F-5E is a lightweight third generation fighter which has served in the ROCAF for over four decades, and over 300 were manufactured in Taiwan under license. It is the only class of Taiwanese fighter currently in service to have seen combat on a significant scale, with Taiwanese pilots operating them in the Middle East during the Cold War against the Soviet-aligned state of South Yemen. Taiwanese F-5s are considered among the most capable variants of the F-5 in the world, and have been heavily enhanced domestically including the integration of the Sky Sword II active radar guided missile.

The ROCAF is widely considered obsolete in the face of the Chinese mainland's People's Liberation Army (PLA), and not only lacks modern aircraft but also has no fighters from the medium or heavy weight ranges such as F-18E or F-15 jets - meaning its entire fleet is comprised of relatively cheap lightweights. The balance of power in the air over the Taiwan Strait has increasingly shifted against its favour, with almost all of Taiwanese airspace within range of the mainland's long range surface to air missiles and the PLA deploying potentially game changing new assets such as DF-17 hypersonic missiles and J-20 stealth fighters. As Taiwan is not recognised as a country by the United Nations or by any UN member state, it has often struggled to procure arms from abroad.