: aircraft.--Stephen V Cole

Taiwan has launched a seven year program (budget: $225 million) to design a new strike fighter aircraft based on the Indigenous Defensive Fighter Aircraft. (The IDF is a variant of the F-16.) This design would have more range than the Mirage-2000-5 and F-16 and would be able to strike mainland China. The aircraft is designed to provide a deterrent to Chinese missile strikes, as it would provide an ability to retaliate. Taiwan is also developing a new surface-to-surface missile that could hit cities in China as far as 1,000km away. (The US forced Taiwan to give up the similar Sky Horse missile in the early 1980s.) Taiwan's new President, Chen Shui-ban, has warned that new Chinese aircraft will threaten Taiwan's dominance of the Straits within