TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said Monday that the US is adding extra shifts to accelerate production of F-16 Block 70 jets after delivery delays.

DPP Legislators Loh Mei-ling (羅美玲) and Chen Chun-yu (陳俊宇) raised concerns about delays with the three major US arms sales programs, the F-16Vs, AGM-154C Joint Standoff Weapons, and MK-48 heavyweight torpedoes, per CNA. Koo said he could not guarantee all 66 F-16Vs would be delivered by the end of next year.

He said the US is expected to complete assembly of 10 jets by year-end, followed by test flights and delivery if testing goes smoothly. Fifty jets, including the 10 nearing completion, are currently on the production line.

The defense minister stressed that the F-16V program “is not completely without progress.” He said, “The US is working at full speed, with two shifts for 20 hours a day to speed up production.”

He added that Taiwan began payments when the US started preparing materials and setting up the production line. However, it deferred payments starting from the first quarter of 2024 after delays occurred.

Concerning the AGM-154C glide bomb, Koo said deliveries were originally planned between this year and 2026, but restarting the production line and system integration for the newest variant pushed deliveries to 2027–2028.

For the MK-48 heavyweight torpedoes, Taiwan is procuring 24 warshot and four training models. Deliveries were initially scheduled for 2023–2026, but supply chain disruptions and production restarts shifted all deliveries to 2026–2028.