After the administration of United States President Barrack Obama on September 21 announced its new US$5.8 billion arms package for Taiwan, observers and officials across the Asia-Pacific scrambled to evaluate the deal.
Now the dust has settled, it's understood that Taiwan didn't get what it wanted; namely, new F-16s. What the island will get instead is a very punchy upgrade of its existing ones. However, there is a major flaw. The whole job will take a decade to complete, and for the first refitted aircraft to be operational, at least half of that time period will pass.
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