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The delivery of one of the 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft from the United States is behind schedule due to a malfunction in its flight control system, a ROC Air Force official confirmed Thursday.
ROC received the first P-3C aircraft last September, and three more were scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan by the end of 2013, according to the Air Force.
During a legislative committee session Thursday, however, lawmaker Lin Yu-fang of the ruling Kuomintag revealed that the three sub-hunters should have been flown to Taiwan from Guam in December, but only one arrived here on Dec 12.
Delivery of the other two was delayed due to a serious malfunction, after being flown there from the mainland United States, Lin said.
One of the two P-3Cs eventually arrived in Taiwan on Dec 17, after the problem was resolved, Lin said, adding that the other one was still in Guam waiting to be repaired.
Fielding questions from Lin, Lieutenant general Ting Chung-wu, chief of staff of the Air Force, said there was no P-3C supply facility at the military base in Guam and that US personnel are on Christmas vacation.
The cost of repairs will be covered by the US, Ting said.
Five more P-3Cs will be delivered to Taiwan in 2014, and another three in 2015, when the P-3C fleet will be commissioned, the Air Force reported.
The P-3Cs will replace a fleet of 11 S-2T anti-submarine aircraft that has been in service for more than 40 years, it added.
The P-3C is said to be the most capable of Lockheed's P-3 submarine-detecting aircraft.
The US government approved the sale of the 12 P-3Cs with T-56 turboprop engines and related equipment and services in 2007 and estimated the price of the package at US$1.96 billion.
