Hybrid of Taiwan's Airspace -- Close Up on Taiwan's IDF Fighter

摘要

On the basis of introductions in the recent Taiwan press, the 8th flight squadronof the Taizhong Qingquangang KMT air force base held a delivery ceremony on 28 December 1994 for the first batch of 20 IDF fighters. Beginning New Year's Day 1995, they begin formal utilization to carry out combat readiness missions. As far as the Taiwan air force IDF, that is, in English--Indigenous Defense Fighter, as it is abbreviated--is concerned, it was developed by the Taiwan Zhongshan Science Institute's aviation industry development center. It is a type of supersonic multiple use fighter. The prototype model has already been named the 'Jingguo'. The local press has called it one of the Taiwan air forces four types of second generation combat aircraft. The other three types are the F-16A/BMLU (a middle life improved model), the Mirage 2000-5 fighter, and the E2-T aerial early warning aircraft. Based on the analyses of relevant personages, it goes without saying that IDF fighters--from exterior shape to internal equipment--have, in all cases, integrated and applied good amounts of designs and equipment associated with other fighters and can be said to be a 'hybrid'. Its appearance gave rise to interest from a number of readers. For this reason, we will here make a preliminary introduction with regard to such things as its development background and design requirements, development processes and applied technologies, primary characteristics, as well as future utilization, and so on, in order to provide a reference.