TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The first of 66 F-16V Block 70 jets can be delivered to Taiwan this year as Deputy Defense Minister Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visits the manufacturer in South Carolina, the Ministry of National Defense said Saturday.

Hsu toured the Lockheed Martin factory on March 16 in the company of Taiwan Envoy to the US Alexander Yui (俞大㵢) and Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Tien Chung-yi (田忠儀), the Liberty Times reported. They inspected the first of the jets destined for Taiwan to have completed an acceptance check flight.

The delegation also inspected the assembly line where the planes were being built. Lockheed Martin said it had posted several hundred employees on the project. As the plane was especially designed for Taiwan, repeated testing had to be conducted to ascertain all the systems, cables, and software were mutually compatible, the manufacturer said. At the end of each test, the jet had to return to the assembly line for further adjustments to guarantee quality and safety.

The ministry said the US government would complete the final acceptance check flight for the first of the 66 jets and deliver it to Taiwan later this year. Cooperation through the Taiwan-US security cooperation mechanism will continue in order to speed up the manufacturing and delivery of the aircraft, according to the military.