Edited by Sidney McAlear

Taiwan's first two new F-16C Block 70s landed at Chihhang Air Base on October 2. They're the first of 66 ordered in 2019 for about $8 billion, and they arrived more than three years late. Weeks earlier, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported that the U.S. Air Force will consider buying new F-16s of its own, its first in more than 20 years. The reason is math: the service had 1,098 fighters as of May, 47 short of the 1,145 Congress requires. No decision has been made yet. I broke it all down in this week's video.

I'm biased. I know. But the F-16 is the greatest fighter jet. With that on the table, here are some of my thoughts.

When we talked to the Weasel pilots for our Operation Midnight Hammer series, the surprise was that the F-16 was in that fight at all. Everyone assumed it would only party with low-observable assets. But when it came down to it, you needed F-16s carrying HARMs (high speed anti-radiation missiles) to suppress air defenses — proactively and reactively — alongside the F-22s and F-35s helping clear the way for the B-2s.

The plan was to buy 750 F-22s. We bought 187 (195 with test jets).

The plan is to buy 2,470 A, B, & C model F-35’s. How many will we actually buy?

That's the point, without going too far down the rabbit hole. You only have so many F-22s and F-35s. If demand for fighters keeps climbing and the inventory sits below what Congress requires, a capable, cheaper-to-operate jet off an existing line deserves a hard look.

The Block 70 isn't fifth-generation, but it gets about as close as you can without being a stealth platform. You weave in the DNA from the F-22 and F-35 and embed it into one of the most proven fighters ever built and you end up with a very capable platform for modern problems. And in the end each jet brings strengths and weaknesses. Leveraging those amongst the force package is what separates winners from losers.

Getting the first two jets to Taiwan was its own saga. Thomas Newdick at The War Zone laid out the trip: the jets left Lockheed Martin's plant in Greenville, South Carolina, on August 17, made it to Hawaii, and then sat for more than six weeks. Taiwan's Central News Agency reported they stayed there without explanation while President Trump prepared to meet Xi Jinping. Weather and tanker availability are among the other explanations floating around.

My read: anyone who has dragged fighters across an ocean knows how this goes. One jet breaks, you wait on parts, and your tanker gets pulled to a higher-priority mission. Geopolitics may have played a role. Nobody has said so on the record.

The bigger delay came earlier. Deliveries were supposed to start in 2023. COVID, supply chain problems, software, the move of the F-16 line from Fort Worth to Greenville, and a brand-new electronic warfare suite all pushed it back. The jets joined the 7th Tactical Fighter Wing at Chihhang, replacing F-5s retired in 2024. Arrival doesn't mean combat-ready, though. Acceptance testing and transition training come first.

The jet is only part of the package. The 2019 notification to Congress lists 66 aircraft plus GE F110 engines, APG-83 AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars, Link 16, new mission computers, advanced IFF (identification friend or foe), towed decoys, and precision-weapon kits. Taiwan is also adding an IRST (infrared search and track) sensor, which can find and track aircraft without the jet's radar transmitting, plus 200 AIM-120C-8 AMRAAMs.

The headline upgrade is L3Harris's Viper Shield (AN/ALQ-254), an internal radar warning receiver and jammer. It ties directly into the APG-83, so the radar and the EW (electronic warfare) suite work from one picture, and it identifies, prioritizes, and jams threats largely on its own. That frees the pilot to fly the mission instead of managing the jamming.

Here's the nuance. Taiwan's 139 older F-16s were already upgraded to the F-16V standard in 2023, APG-83 radar included. The new jets add a fresh airframe and the new EW suite. When all 66 arrive, Taiwan will fly more than 200 F-16s, still heavily outnumbered across the Strait.

On September 16, Stephen Losey and Chris Gordon at Air & Space Forces Magazine reported that the Air Force will consider new-build F-16s as it builds its fiscal 2028 budget. Their source put it plainly: this would "not be your grandfather's F-16."

Lockheed's pitch, informally called the "F-16G," is an enhanced Block 70 with conformal fuel tanks, an IRST, a targeting pod, and a drag chute for short, austere runways. A&SF's source says it would carry the ALQ-257 jammer the Air Force already uses, which would put it beyond today's Block 70s.

The case against: Greenville already has a backlog of more than 100 jets, and many Guard units want F-35s or F-15EXs, not more Vipers. Officially, the Air Force is in the initial phases of analyzing options. No requirement, no money, no decision. It could come up at the Corona meeting of four-stars this fall.

Bottom line: two jets in Taiwan don't change the balance across the Strait, and one magazine story doesn't make an F-16 buy. But the order book in Greenville and the fighter count in Washington point the same direction.

Want the full breakdown with visuals? Here's this week's video.

Country of Origin: China
IOC: 2017
Primary Role: Stealth air superiority and long-range interception
Proliferation: People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) only; not exported

The J-20 regularly patrols the East and South China Seas. A stealthy twin-engine jet is exactly the kind of target IRST sensors like Taiwan's are meant to find without giving away the hunter's position.

In History

On September 2, 1992, President George H.W. Bush stood in front of General Dynamics workers in Fort Worth and announced the sale of 150 F-16A/Bs to Taiwan. He noted it was 48 years to the day since he'd been shot down over Chichi Jima. Beijing protested. The deal was signed that November for Block 20 jets, and those airframes are the F-16Vs Taiwan flies today. Thirty-four years later, the next generation finally showed up. They were built in South Carolina this time, and they took the long way.