The sale of FX aircraft to Taiwan

Janice M. Hinton

Expert InsightsPublished 1982

The Reagan Administration on January 11, 1982, announced its decision to deny the Nationalist Government of China's request for aircraft superior to the F-5E Tiger. Instead, the United States granted permission to the Northrop Corporation to extend its ten-year agreement with Taiwan beyond 1983 for continued coproduction of the F-5E. The U.S. government chose among four options of approving for sale the F-5G, the F-16/J79, more F-5E planes, or no aircraft. This paper studies several factors which were probably considered in making the decision: the defense needs of Taiwan in relation to combat performance and costs of the two FX aircraft under consideration, and the importance of China's response to the decision.

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Hinton, Janice M., The sale of FX aircraft to Taiwan. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1982. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P6730.html.
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