Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Aero_Wing_32

Aero_Wing_32

Junior Member
Semi-Lobster said:
It seems that cost hasn't been the factor with the cutting of flight times for the ROCAF Mirages but engine troubles

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So what? When a fleet gets a problem it has to be solved, with french here, with americans other times, if it's about the F-5 or the F-16. That's not an argument to criticize a bird or another. Recently some problems occured to new generation of aircrafts like F-18, Typhoon... one more time, so what? You think all of these must be thrown away? for that? No. Of course. Eventhough it naturally gets an impact when a whole fleet must be grounded. But it happens to ANY country with old or even newer aircrafts.

Let me say just another thing: this forum is not a tribune to a lobby or another. We re here to discuss military issues and also the outlook for Taiwan national defence. If you just post web articles, mostly oriented, this forum would become a bit boring. So step up with higher and more valuable contents.
 
Semi-Lobster

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
Aero_Wing_32 said:
So what? When a fleet gets a problem it has to be solved, with french here, with americans other times, if it's about the F-5 or the F-16. That's not an argument to criticize a bird or another. Recently some problems occured to new generation of aircrafts like F-18, Typhoon... one more time, so what? You think all of these must be thrown away? for that? No. Of course. Eventhough it naturally gets an impact when a whole fleet must be grounded. But it happens to ANY country with old or even newer aircrafts.

Let me say just another thing: this forum is not a tribune to a lobby or another. We re here to discuss military issues and also the outlook for Taiwan national defence. If you just post web articles, mostly oriented, this forum would become a bit boring. So step up with higher and more valuable contents.
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Woah! You're putting word in my mouth! I never advocated scrapping the Mirage 2000-5s ever in any of my posts! I'm saying American business type people are reporting that they are expensive to operate and we both agree that they are biased towards American military export interests! My original post was me trying to advocate the acquisition of MORE refurbished Mirage 2000-9s from the UAE and other countries. I was trying to point out that in recent years French support has been a bit shallow towards the ROCAF, especially after the La Fayette scandal. France is in a very bad position export wise since Rafale sales are constantly losing tenders. What I was originally posting was that France should try to take advantage of the US' uncertain export of the F-16 by offering Mirages to replace their F-5E fleet. In terms of economies of scale, operating more aircraft of a single type would lower the overall costs of operating the aircraft. Also, as they are no longer in production any more, Taiwan could ask for the Mirage production lines as was offered to India before (and turned down). This would also bolster AIDC which would keep jobs and aerospace expertise in Taiwan. I didn't mention anywhere that I think it would be a good idea to retire the Mirage 2000s, infact they will be more important than ever in the next decade IMO, with the F-5E fleet being phased and large parts of their F-16A/B and IDF fleets being temporarily taken from active service for refurbishment, it would be extremely short sighted to remove the ROCAFs most advanced fighter aircraft from service.
 
Semi-Lobster

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
Skywatcher said:
The ROC could keep more jobs just by reopening the IDF line (and getting engines shouldn't be a problem).
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I think that would be the most ideal option as well. The IDF's limitations are based off its 1980s era components, not the actual design itself. The Taiwanese government though sometimes seems to be the biggest obstruction towards Taiwan being self-sufficient in the first place.
 
Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
Semi-Lobster said:
The Taiwanese government though sometimes seems to be the biggest obstruction towards Taiwan being self-sufficient in the first place.
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It's more the top brass. They look for kick-backs/benefits from foreign arms sales. Domestic production is a lot simpler to organise, so their input isn't required.
 
Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
Skywatcher said:
Shouldn't that thing be less of a problem now?
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No, it's just that people don't get murdered over it anymore.

It's not so much that the generals are bribed, it's that they get to go on foreign "fact-finding missions" and the like. In contrast, investing in domestic R&D and production lines doesn't allow you to go anywhere fun.

Plus there's the simple short-sighted view that local development doesn't produce something good now. They don't want to wait decades for a good capability to be produced only for their successors to take the credit.
 
Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
I'm not overly concerned by this. There is no emergency requirement for Taiwan to have these items in the next five years instead of the next ten. There's been a lot of items on order in the last couple of years because of the previous US policy of bunching authorisations together.

It seems that the US may start to authorise purchases just when deemed necessary, which would make things easier in the future.
 
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