Paraguay Pursues F‑5, AT‑3 Fighters; Experts See Stronger Military Alliance

South American ally Paraguay has recently been reportedly in active discussions with Taiwan to introduce active-duty or retired F-5 fighter jets and AT-3 advanced jet trainers from Taiwan's Air Force, aiming to rebuild the country's long-vacant jet combat and training capabilities. This military-diplomatic and defense cooperation development, disclosed by foreign media, has quickly attracted high attention from domestic and international military observers. Regarding this potential military sale or assistance cooperation case, domestic strategic scholars generally hold a positive attitude, believing that this move will not only help deepen the substantive alliance between Taiwan and its sole South American ally, but also concretely assist the ally in strengthening its air defense capabilities through the surplus capacity of Taiwan's independent defense transformation, playing a key strategic influence in South American geopolitics.

Reviewing the development history of the Paraguayan Air Force, the country once possessed a certain number of jet fighter formations. However, with the successive retirement of aging models and difficulties in procuring spare parts, the Paraguayan Air Force has in recent years substantially lost its combat and flight training capabilities for supersonic jets, with its main air defense relying mostly on light propeller attack aircraft or transport planes. Faced with the pressure of neighboring countries successively promoting air modernization and procuring new fighter jets in recent years, the Paraguayan military has actively sought ways to restore its jet capabilities. However, due to international geopolitical realities, diplomatic budgets, and other comprehensive considerations, the threshold for Paraguay to purchase brand-new advanced fighter jets from major European and American powers is extremely high. Therefore, turning to Taiwan, which has maintained long-standing close military and diplomatic cooperation, for assistance has become a logical and pragmatic strategic choice.

On Taiwan's side, the Air Force has been fully promoting national defense autonomy and force structure transformation in recent years. On one hand, the domestically manufactured Yung-ing advanced jet trainer has entered mass production and intensive delivery phases, gradually taking over training missions from the active fleet. On the other hand, the long-serving AT-3 advanced trainers and F-5 fighter-trainers are also facing a historical node of generational transition. Scholars point out that although the avionics systems, airframe lifespans, and combat performance of the AT-3 trainers and F-5 jets no longer fully meet Taiwan's needs for facing current high-intensity defensive operations, for Paraguay, which has relatively limited defense budgets and faces an air defense vehicle vacuum, these aircraft—after maintenance, life-extension, and preparation by Taiwan's aviation industry technology—remain mature vehicles with excellent performance and high cost-effectiveness, capable of seamlessly helping Paraguay rebuild its pilot jet piloting and tactical training system.

From the macro perspective of diplomatic and defense strategy, if this cooperation project can be smoothly advanced, its symbolic meaning and substantive benefits will be profound. Under the realistic environment where Taiwan's diplomatic space has long been suppressed, consolidating existing diplomatic allies has always been the top priority of diplomatic work, and military-security cooperation is often the most stable and difficult-to-shake bond in bilateral relations. By providing defense materials and technical support such as the AT-3 and F-5, Taiwan can not only transform military equipment that might otherwise face retirement and deactivation into strategic assets of high diplomatic value, but also substantially participate in the defense construction of its ally, allowing Paraguay to deeply feel the solid support from Taiwan when facing regional security challenges, thereby achieving the long-term goal of stabilizing bilateral ties.

In addition, this potential military exchange also highlights Taiwan's potential value in the international military supply chain and defense industry maintenance and support. Over the decades, Taiwan has accumulated rich experience in the operation, maintenance, modification, and localized logistics of US-made equipment. Even while independently developing a new generation of equipment, its maintenance capacity for mature aircraft models still maintains international standards. If this case can be used as an opportunity to assist Paraguay in establishing a sound logistical maintenance and pilot training mechanism, it will not only demonstrate to the international community Taiwan's capability to maintain regional peace and assist allies' national defenses, but also create more flexible and in-depth diplomatic space and strategic layout for Taiwan on the stage of international military cooperation.