Taiwan loses two fighter jets in apparent collision, third such crash in six months

The air force has grounded the F-5 fleet that operates from the Chihhang air base. - AFP

TAIPEI (Reuters): Two Taiwanese fighter jets crashed on Monday (March 22) in the third such incident in the past half year, at a time when the Beijing-claimed island's armed forced are under increasing pressure to intercept Chinese aircraft on an almost daily basis.

While Taiwan's air force is well trained and well equipped, mostly with US-made equipment, it is dwarfed by China's. Beijing views the democratic island as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Chinese control.