DEFENSE/Taiwan completes production of 66 Brave Eagle advanced jet trainers

Taipei, Sept. 24 (CNA) Taiwan completed production of all 66 domestically developed Brave Eagle advanced jet trainers Thursday, with Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC) Chairman Tsao Chin-pin (曹進平) personally piloting one of the final two aircraft to the Air Force Academy in Kaohsiung's Gangshan District.

The two aircraft, numbered 1165 and 1166, took off around 11 a.m., circled Ching Chuan Kang Air Base and made a low pass over AIDC's Shalu plant in Taichung, where employees waved to the aircraft.

They landed at 11:36 a.m., 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 the waters off Taitung County in February 2025. 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 both 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, the government-funded weapons developer National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology and AIDC.

AIDC served as 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 the 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 in each of 2025 and 2026.

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