Taiwan Receives Its First Two F-16 Block 70s From the Largest F-16 Order Still Outstanding

Taiwan took delivery of its first two new-build F-16 Block 70 fighters on October 2, 2026, when the jets landed at Chihhang Air Base near Taitung on the island's east coast, Taiwan's Military News Agency announced, as reported by Breaking Defense. The Aviationist identifies the aircraft as F-16C Block 70s and the first deliveries under Taiwan's 2019 procurement of 66 new F-16C/D Block 70s, a sale the United States approved that year at a value of about $8 billion, according to Defense News and The Aviationist.

The two jets will join the 7th Tactical Fighter Wing at Chihhang, where they replace the F-5 Tiger II fighters the unit retired in 2024, Breaking Defense reported. President Lai Ching-te wrote on Facebook that "this is an important development in strengthening Taiwan's air defense capabilities," according to Defense News.

Deliveries were originally planned to begin in 2023, Breaking Defense and The Aviationist both note. Breaking Defense attributes the slip to Lockheed Martin's 2019 relocation of the F-16 production line from Fort Worth, Texas, to Greenville, South Carolina, and to supply-chain shortages in 2021, while Defense News cites issues including software problems. The two aircraft left the United States on August 17, The Aviationist reports, citing Taiwanese media, and Breaking Defense says they were held during stopovers in Hawaii and Guam because of adverse weather.

Taiwan's F-16 fleet today

The new aircraft join a force built around approximately 140 F-16A/B Block 20s acquired in the early 2000s and since upgraded to the F-16V standard with the AN/APG-83 AESA radar and modern avionics, according to Breaking Defense. The same report notes that the Block 70s carry the same radar, can be fitted with conformal fuel tanks and are powered by the General Electric F110 engine rather than the Pratt & Whitney F100 of the older jets. The Aviationist adds that the new airframes have a 12,000-flight-hour service life, against 8,000 hours for the upgraded F-16Vs after a previous life extension.

According to GMN's inventory data, which counts each country's inventory plus every logged change since, Taiwan's air force has 140 F-16s in service as of October 5, 2026: 138 upgraded F-16A/B jets and the two Block 70s delivered on October 2. With 64 aircraft still on order, the fleet would stand at 204 once deliveries are complete. The Aviationist puts the eventual total at 205; GMN's lower figure reflects the F-16 lost in a crash in January 2026, which GMN records as a fleet event. Defense News describes the sale as one that "would take its F-16 fleet to more than 200."

Taiwan among the world's F-16 operators

GMN counts 2,750 F-16 Fighting Falcons in service with 27 countries worldwide, and a further 218 on order. Ranked by aircraft in service, the ten largest operators are:

• United States, 846
• Turkey, 236, plus 40 on order
• Israel, 222
• Egypt, 218
• South Korea, 166
• Greece, 151
• Taiwan, 140, plus 64 on order
• United Arab Emirates, 76
• Pakistan, 75
• Romania, 64, plus 3 on order

In GMN's data, Taiwan's 64 outstanding aircraft are the largest open F-16 order in the world, ahead of Ukraine's 43, Turkey's 40, Morocco's 24 and Argentina's 12. Delivered in full, they would take Taiwan's fleet to 204 aircraft, past South Korea's 166 and Greece's 151, and make it the fifth-largest F-16 operator behind the United States, Turkey, Israel and Egypt. That projection holds on current figures only: it assumes every other fleet stays as it is, and Turkey, whose own 40 aircraft on order would take it to 276, would remain ahead in any case.

The F-16 share of Taiwan's combat fleet

The order also shifts the composition of Taiwan's fighter force. According to GMN's data, Taiwan has 321 combat aircraft in service: the 140 F-16s, 129 F-CK-1 Ching-kuo indigenous fighters and 52 Mirage 2000-5s. F-16s account for 43.6 percent of that fleet today. With all 64 Block 70s delivered and nothing else changed, the combat fleet would grow to 385 aircraft and the F-16 share to 53.0 percent, a majority of Taiwan's combat aircraft.

Across all the air arms GMN tracks, Taiwan has 730 military aircraft in service, and the country ranks 14th in GMN's ATLAS military power ranking. The new jets go to an air force "that has to scramble almost daily to shadow China's military," as Defense News puts it; GMN follows that activity in its China-Taiwan standoff tracker.

No schedule has been published for the remaining aircraft. Taiwan's defense minister said other new F-16s would arrive soon but gave no details, Defense News reported, and The Aviationist says the remaining fighters are at different stages of production, testing and delivery preparation in the United States.