REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) was considering Taiwan`s offer to grant a squadron of fighter jet, F-5E/F Tiger "(The offer) is good and we will consider it," Air Force Chief of Staff, Marshal Imam Sufaat, said on Friday.
He explained, the usage of aged F-5E/Fs of the Indonesian Air Forces’ would end in 2020. "On the average, the remaining flight hours of our F-5 planes are 4,000 out of 10,000 they have. If they fly 200 hours a year they can be used until 2020," he said.
Assistant for planning to the air force chief of staff, Rear Marshal Rodi Suprasodjo, said if these F-5E/F fighter jets still could carry out their function properly they did not need to be upgraded.
Mentioned in taiwanairpower.org and quoted by the Wikipedia, the US gave 28 units of F-5E to Taiwan by May 1975. By 1973, Taiwan's AIDC started local production of a first batch of 100 F-5Es in Taiwan, the first of six Peace Tiger production batches. By end of 1986 when the production line closed after completing Peace Tiger 6, the AIDC had produced 242 F-5Es and 66 F-5Fs. Adding the 28 original US-made F-5E/Fs, this made Taiwan the largest F-5E/F operator at one time, with 336 F-5E/Fs in inventory.
