The U.S. Air Force said that the F-16 fighter production challenge development challen

The U.S. Air Force said that the U.S.'s first batch of F-16 fighters was delayed because the fighter production line encountered a "complex development challenge."The reason given by the US Air Force is more serious than the supply chain interruption caused by the prerequisite to the crown disease.

According to Bloomberg News on Wednesday (May 24), the US Air Force said in a statement that the production of F-16 fighters encountered a "complicated development challenge", the US government, Taiwan government and Lockchid ·Martin "is actively trying to alleviate these delays", "We are committed to finding the solutions every effort, and delivering these completely capable aircraft as soon as possible to our partners."

Declaration did not disclose Lockhels.What development challenges are encountered in Lockheed Martin Corp..The U.S. Air Force and Lockheed also rejected the time of the challenges that will affect the delivery of the fighters to Palin, Jordan, Slovakia, Morocco and Bulgaria.

The U.S. Air Force said that after learning about technical issues, the US State Department and senior officials from the Pentagon immediately contacted Lockheed and went to the Greenwell Base to meet with the company's executives to discuss this issue.The new F-16 fighter is assembled at the factory of Greenwell, South Carolina, South Carolina.

Liz Lutz, a spokesman for Lockheed, said in a statement that the company is "working closely with the US government to deal with challenges to support US security goals."

The United States approved the sale of 66 F-16 fighters worth 8 billion US dollars (about S $ 10.76 billion) in Taiwan in 2019 to enhance Taiwan to strengthen Taiwan ’s strengthening in mainland China to strengthen China’ s strengthening of China.Defense ability when threatening.After the delivery is completed, the number of F-16 fighters in Taiwan will reach more than 200.

The Taiwan Ministry of National Defense stated earlier this month that the first batch (two) new F-16V fighters were originally scheduled to be delivered in the fourth quarter of this year, but due to the crown disease epidemic, the supply chain was interrupted.third episode.Lockheed said all 66 aircraft will still be delivered in 2026 as planned.

But Bloomberg reported that the US Air Force's statement showed that the delivery of the F-16 fighter was delayed because the supply chain interruption was more serious.

William Laplans, Deputy Minister of Defense, said in an industrial conference in March this year that most of the backlogs in the fighter production chain are F-16 fighter production lines. "The speed is slow, but because the previous orders must be completed. "

Since last year, Taiwan has complained that the United States has repeatedly delayed delivery of weapons.American weapons manufacturers will supply priority to Ukraine to support defense against Russia, which has attracted the attention of US legislators.Michael Mccaul, chairman of the US Congress House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, promised when he visited Taiwan last month that he would do everything possible to speed up weapons delivery.