Taiwan air force flexes muscles after latest Chinese incursion

By Yimou Lee
TAINAN, Taiwan, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Armed and ready to go,
Taiwan air force jets screamed into the sky on Tuesday in a
drill to simulate a war scenario, showing its fleet's battle
readiness after dozens of Chinese warplanes flew into the
island's air defence zone over the weekend.
Taiwan, claimed by China as its territory, has been on edge
since the large-scale incursion by Chinese fighters and
nuclear-capable bombers into the southwestern part of its air
defence identification zone on Saturday and Sunday, which
coincided with a U.S. carrier group entering the South China
Sea. The base in the southern city of Tainan, home to F-CK-1
Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighters (IDF), frequently
scrambles jets to intercept China's air force.
In a hardened shelter, flight crew from the First Tactical
Fighter Wing rushed to ready two IDFs as an alarm bell rang out,
aiming to get them off the ground within five minutes of an
emergency call, armed with U.S.-made Sidewinders and
domestically-developed Wan Chien air-to-ground cruise missiles.
Colonel Lee Ching-shi told Reuters their jets usually go up
armed with guns, Sidewinders and Taiwan-made Sky Sword missiles
when reacting to Chinese jets and they can respond "at any
time".
"We are ready," he said during a government-organised visit
to the base. "We will not give up one inch of our territory."
Four IDFs carried out tactical formation landing and rolling
take off drills, roaring away from the runway.
China has provided no public explanation for what its
aircraft were doing at the weekend. Washington responded by
calling on China to cease pressuring Taiwan and reaffirming its
commitment to the democratic island. Taiwan's air force is well trained, but has far fewer combat
aircraft than China and has strained under the pressure of
almost constantly having to scramble in recent months,
responding to stepped up Chinese activity near the
island. "All the wings are under quite a lot of pressure, but as
long as the air force is here, we will react according to
related battle readiness rules," said pilot Wang Chih-chan.

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SPECIAL REPORT-China launches 'gray-zone' warfare to subdue
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(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)