《TAIPEI TIMES》 Brave Eagle AJT production completed

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The final two Brave Eagle advanced jet trainers prepare to depart from the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp facility in Taichung for delivery yesterday. Photo: CNA

SUSTAINING THE INDUSTRY: With production for the trainers completed, experts warned of a potential talent drain, with one suggesting combat drone development

/ Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwan has completed production of all 66 domestically developed Brave Eagle （勇鷹） advanced jet trainers （AJT）, with Aerospace Industrial Development Corp （AIDC） chairman Tsao Chin-pin （曹進平） yesterday personally piloting one of the final two aircraft to the Air Force Academy in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District （岡山）.

The two aircraft, No. 1165 and 1166, took off at about 11am, circled Ching Chuan Kang Air Base （清泉崗基地） and made a low pass over AIDC’s Shalu plant in Taichung, where employees waved to the aircraft.

They landed at 11:36am, marking the completion of a nine-year program to develop and mass-produce the new trainer.

Although 66 Brave Eagles have been produced, the air force currently has 65 after one crashed into waters off Taitung County in February last year.

The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft.

The Brave Eagle is designed to replace the decommissioned F-5E/F and AT-3 aircraft, enabling the air force to adopt a “three-stage, two-aircraft” pilot training system that also involves the T-34 trainer aircraft.

The Brave Eagle serves advanced and operational flight-training roles, allowing pilots to transition more efficiently to frontline fighters such as the F-16V Block 20 and Block 70 aircraft.

The advanced jet trainer program was launched in 2017 through contracts involving the air force, government-funded weapons developer National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology （NCSIST） and the AIDC.

AIDC was the prime contractor, overseeing aircraft design, component production, assembly and testing, while more than 200 domestic suppliers participated in the program.

Derived from Taiwan’s Indigenous Defense Fighter （IDF）, the Brave Eagle has more than 80 percent of its components redesigned from those of the IDF, with changes to its aerodynamics, exterior and fuselage. Its domestic content reached 55 percent.

The first prototype was unveiled on Sept. 24, 2019, and named Brave Eagle by then-president Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文）.

AIDC completed the aircraft’s design and conducted its first flight within three years and two months, the company said.

Mass production began in 2021, but was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, international conflicts and geopolitical tensions that disrupted global supply chains.

AIDC said it overcame shortages of imported systems and key components by developing some of them domestically in cooperation with government research institutes and local manufacturers.

Despite those disruptions, AIDC delivered 14 Brave Eagles each last year and this year, it said.

Completing the program has also strengthened its experience and capabilities in aircraft development, systems integration, mass production and supply chain management, which would support future military aircraft maintenance, upgrades and logistics programs, AIDC said.

With the Brave Eagle production completed and plans for a next-generation primary trainer or fighter jet still undetermined, experts warned of a potential talent drain in the domestic aerospace industry.

Chi Li-ping （齊立平）, former head of the institute’s Aeronautical Systems Research Division, urged the government not to repeat the mistake it made after the IDF program in the 1990s, when a halt in development led to a decades-long technology and talent gap.

Maintaining an indigenous aircraft platform is the lifeblood of national defense autonomy, Chi said, adding that while Taiwan could integrate its domestically developed missiles onto the IDF, the US would never open the interfaces of purchased F-16s or MQ-9B drones to accommodate Taiwanese weapons.

Institute for National Defense and Security Research research fellow Shu Hsiao-huang （舒孝煌） suggested that pivoting to develop advanced combat drones could be a viable path to sustain the local industry’s manufacturing capabilities, although it would require significant financial and personnel investments.

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