TAIPEI (Reuters) – One of the Taiwan air force’s new, domestically developed advanced jet trainer aircraft crashed on Saturday after reporting engine failure, though the crew safely bailed out, the military said, in a setback for the programme.
The AT-5 Brave Eagle, made by state-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corp with a budget of T$68.6 billion ($2.1 billion), had its first test flight in 2020.
Taiwan’s air force said the aircraft took off from the Chihhang air base in Taitung on the island’s east coast and then reported the failure of both its engines. The crew parachuted to safety and were rescued, it added.
An investigation team has been set up, the air force said in its statement.
It is the first such accident since the AT-5 began being handed over to the air force in 2021.
Taiwan’s air force plans on taking 66 units by 2026 to replace its aging predecessor the AT-3 and U.S.-made F-5 training aircraft, which have suffered a series of crashes in recent years.
Taiwan’s armed forces are mostly equipped by the United States, but the government has made development of an advanced home-grown defence industry a priority, especially as China, which claims the island as its own, steps up military modernisation efforts and drills near Taiwan.
The AT-5 is Taiwan’s first jet made domestically since the F-CK-1 Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighter, or IDF, rolled out more than three decades ago, and the two jets look similar and have similar capabilities.
The AT-5 is used for both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat training purposes, and can land and take off using a shorter amount of runway.
It can be equipped with weapons, though that remains in the testing phase, and the plane is designed to have a support function in time of war.
($1 = 32.6660 Taiwan dollars)
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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