Taiwan finished building its home-made advanced jet trainer fleet, but defense experts warn the win could be wasted if the government does not decide what to build next.

• The last two Yung Ying trainers were handed to the air force, completing all 66 aircraft seven years after the program started.
• Plans for the next basic trainer and a new fighter are still undecided, raising fears that engineers will drift away.
• Taiwan did this before: after the IDF fighter program ended, skills and production capacity dried up for 30 years, and those IDF jets are now near the end of their life.
• Keeping a home-built airframe matters because foreign suppliers will not open up their systems — Taiwan can hang its own missiles on its own aircraft, but not on American F-16s or MQ-9B drones.
• Drones are the likely next step, though Taiwan's designs are still conventional compared with jet-powered, stealthy, missile-carrying drones being built in the US.

Outlook: Pressure is on the government to pick a follow-on aircraft program soon, with armed drones and "loyal wingman" aircraft the most likely direction.