Back in January, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued a stark assessment of Taiwan's air power: Without a serious upgrade, the report said, Taiwan's air defenses would not be able to fight off an attack by China. The Pentagon report -- which was sent to Congress in January, but only became public last month -- noted the growing obsolescence of Taiwan's fighter inventory, which includes F-5 Tigers, Mirage 2000-5s and some older F-16A/Bs.
That came as welcome news to Taiwan, which has been lobbying to buy more advanced F-16s, the F-16C/D model, from the United States.
But here's the catch: The F-16 production line is eventually going to shut down as the United States and its allies switch to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Now members of Congress are now stepping up pressure on the administration to sell the aircraft, in part to keep a production line in Fort Worth, Texas, open. (Source: Nathan Hodge, Wired.com, Mar 19, 2010).