Taiwan has decided against carrying out expensive repairs to a E-2K Hawkeye airborne early aircraft that was damaged during a belly landing incident on Nov. 25.
According to local news reports, the cost of repairs will cost $65.16 million.
The cause of the incident, in which the landing gear failed to deploy, was due to pilot error. This is the second such incident for a Taiwan Hawkeye. A similar accident occurred in 1997 when #2503 was damaged in the same way. However, the aircraft was repaired using a fuselage that was being produced for the U.S. Navy.
It has been decided that the aircraft will be redeployed as a ground trainer instead and the parts cannibalized to sustain the Hawkeye fleet. However, the decision not to repair the aircraft is yet to be approved by the Ministry of National Defense.
On November 22, 1995, Taiwan acquired four E-2T aircraft from the United States. In 2004, it acquired an additional two aircraft, which are in Hawkeye 2000 configuration. The earlier four aircraft were later upgraded to Hawkeye 2000 configuration as well. All six aircraft are referred as E-2K in Taiwan service.
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