ROCAF Indigenous Fighter Program

crobato

crobato

Colonel
VIP Professional
Mr T said:
I believe he wants to do both as you say. Problem is if the Americans think his right hand will take the weapons, pass them over to the left hand and the Chinese will have a look at them then they may decide best not to sell anything too nice.
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Americans suspect that all the time even with Lee's and CSB's administrations. Ma's would be nothing special. And there is also a whole bunch of countries out there that has close ties with China that has F-16s and other associated modern weaponry. But if you always worry about that you won't get far into arms sales. That's why export variants are tailored in the first place. And considering that Pakistan is going to buy Block 52+ F-16s, I honestly think selling such planes to Taiwan and worry about China snooping onto them should be less of an issue.
 
crobato

crobato

Colonel
VIP Professional
kliu0 said:
Hopefully they will allow it soon as F-16s provide employment and most importantly money. The US should do it before Taiwan gives up on buying the F-16s in the short term.
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True true. If the US can wrap a deal of 66 F-16s for Taiwan, another 36 for Iraq and 24 for Pakistan, that's a huge business for LM, and they certainly need the business.
 
Semi-Lobster

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
kliu0 said:
Hopefully they will allow it soon as F-16s provide employment and most importantly money. The US should do it before Taiwan gives up on buying the F-16s in the short term.
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There really is no future for the F-5 in the ROCAF. With the cancelation of the F-5 upgrades, they're approaching the end of their lifespan quickly and countries like Mexico, Chile, Philippines etc. are lining up to buy them. Lockheed Martin seems to have put renewed effort in attempting to let Washington let them sell the 66 F-16s. They're probably sensing the window of opportunity to make a sale to the ROC is getting smaller and smaller as the ROCAF's F-5Es get older and older.
 
Semi-Lobster

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
kliu0 said:
The restriction of F-16s can be both positive and negative. Hopefully, this long duration of time has gotten to the government to say that: the US isnt as reliable as we thought, look at all this time wasted, we could've made major improvements to our own defence industry. We could've invested in new projects that would create jobs HERE, perhaps start on designing a new fighter plane, new missiles instead of waiting for the US. If Lockheed Martin is unable to sell off new fighters, perhaps they can help Taiwan make their own. Either way they get paid, which is the what LM wants.
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How much of AIDC's best and brightest are 'left' with the company? From what I've read, KAI has managed to pick up a few former engineers from AIDC after it became apparent that AIDC wasn't going to get any more big contracts in the near future and left to atrophy.
 
Semi-Lobster

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
kliu0 said:
If they reinvest in AIDC, lure new engineers (alot of Taiwanese university students are having trouble finding jobs) with good stable jobs, can work on more upgrades for the IDFs, possible new projects. They can also work in co-op with LM if the F-16 C/Ds arent going to be sold to Taiwan.
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From what I've read about the ROC government, they have a penchant for buying foriegn over buying domestic. Do you think Ma would be willing to invest in domestic companies again? How much restructuring would AIDC need to undero go to do so? Afterall, with certain key people retiring or leaving a company, going back to full scale researchand production can be difficult, as is what happened with the UK's nuclear submarine fleet in the 1980's
 
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