After years of delays, they're finally here. The first two of 66 F-16V Block 70 fighters — part of the $8 billion Lockheed Martin sale approved in 2019 — touched down at Taitung's Chihhang Air Base at noon Friday, flying in via Hawaii and Guam.
President Lai Ching-te wrote on Facebook that the delivery is "an important development in strengthening Taiwan's air defence capabilities," thanking the United States. Defence Minister Wellington Koo told parliament more jets are coming soon: "Of course we won't only have delivered these two by year-end."
The timing matters. The jets arrive almost exactly a week after President Trump met China's Xi Jinping in Washington, and Taipei has been openly worried about Washington's commitment — Trump said in May he was holding a new $14 billion Taiwan arms package in abeyance. The administration insists there has been no change in policy. Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own, won't see it as reassurance — but for an island that scrambles jets almost daily to shadow Chinese forces, Friday was a good day.