Taiwan military drafting plan to replace T-34C trainers: Defense chief

Taipei, June 8 (CNA) Taiwan's military will formulate a replacement plan for its aging T-34C basic trainer aircraft, Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said Monday, after one of the decades-old aircraft crashed earlier this month.

Although the T-34C trainers have not yet reached the end of their service life, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) is drafting a plan to replace them with new basic trainer aircraft, either through overseas procurement or domestic production, Koo told reporters on the sidelines of a legislative hearing.

The final decision will be made before the end of May next year, Koo said. The ministry hopes to secure funding by 2028 to begin implementing the replacement plan, he added.

Koo's comments came after a two-seat T-34C, carrying 41-year-old Lt. Col. Lu Chi-yu (盧季佑) and 45-year-old Lt. Col. Kuo Chun-nan (過俊男), crashed at Gangshan Air Base in Kaohsiung on the morning of June 2, killing both pilots.

The Air Force has said the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Neither pilot reported any anomalies or malfunctions during the flight, and weather conditions, including visibility, were suitable for flying, Air Force Chief Inspector Maj. Gen. Chiang Yi-cheng (江義誠) said at a news conference on June 2.

The T-34C fleet in Taiwan has been in service for over 40 years, after 49 were purchased in 1985 for use as basic trainers. As of Monday, 40 remained in service.

The Air Force had previously said that it planned to replace the aircraft with either domestically built or imported trainers, and it estimated that the T-34Cs would be retired starting in 2033.

Following the crash earlier this month, however, the defense ministry has decided accelerate the replacement plan.

Military and local defense industry sources told CNA that the ministry will likely choose to work with local companies rather than purchase trainers from abroad, as there are several domestic aerospace manufacturers that are capable of producing basic trainer aircraft.