Taiwan completes 66-aircraft Brave Eagle trainer production run

Aerospace Industrial Development Corp completed production of Taiwan’s domestically developed Brave Eagle advanced jet trainer fleet on 24 September 2026, when the final two production aircraft, serials 1165 and 1166, were flown to the Republic of China Air Force Academy in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District. AIDC chairman Tsao Chin-pin took part in the delivery flight, marking the end of a roughly nine-year development and production effort.

According to the Ministry of National Defense Military News Agency, the aircraft departed after pre-flight checks and arrived at Gangshan, where Flight Training Command leadership received the handover. The agency said the programme was approved in 2017 and executed under a three-party arrangement among the Air Force, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, and AIDC, with a planned production run of 66 aircraft.

AIDC served as prime contractor for design integration, parts manufacture, assembly, and testing, with more than 200 domestic suppliers in the industrial chain. The company said the trainer is derived from the Indigenous Defense Fighter design, with more than 80 percent of the aircraft redesigned and domestic content raised to about 55 percent.

The first prototype was rolled out on 24 September 2019 and named Brave Eagle by then-president Tsai Ing-wen. Mass production began in 2021 and faced pandemic and global supply-chain disruption; AIDC reported delivering 14 aircraft in each of 2025 and 2026. Focus Taiwan noted that although 66 aircraft were produced, the Air Force inventory stood at 65 after a February 2025 crash off Taitung County in which the pilot ejected safely.

Military News Agency reporting from Flight Training Command said the completed deliveries allow Taiwan’s pilot pipeline to move from a three-stage, three-aircraft model toward a three-stage, two-aircraft system built around the T-34 primary trainer and the Brave Eagle, with the new type expected to take over advanced training roles previously associated with ageing AT-3 and F-5 training aircraft after formal acceptance.