Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

I'm surprised nobody is paying attention to US sale of ATACMS to Taiwan. Surely this will be on the agenda as Robert Gates arrives in Beijing.

Sale of ATACMS is another part of the strategy to contain China (with Taiwan as one of the many pawns). It is probably also part of the ruse to milk more money from China to pay for the ongoing economic crisis in the US.

IMO it is time for China to arm Iran significantly, just like it already does with Pakistan. I would like to see Iran operating a dense SAM network with latest block HQ-9 and HQ-2, OTH radar and long-wave and bistatic radars. Sell Iran hundreds of JF-17 and KJ-200 AWACS. Sell Iran 022 FAC and latest C-803 ASM. Sell Song or Yuan-class SSK. Sell advanced mines that can wreak havoc on USN in Persian Gulf or Gulf of Aden. Sell Iran WZ-9 combat helicopters, WS-2 MLRS and T-96 or T-99 tanks.

In short, I'm talking about a quantum leap in the capabilities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Turn them into a mini-PLA.

Instead of Israel planning how to strike Iran. It would be Iran that plans a counter-strike against Israel using JF-17 and Chinese PGM. Instead of merely the US planning how to best strike Iran with multiple carrier-borne aircraft, any carriers operating in that area would need to worry about JF-17 firing C-803 ASM, 022 FAC firing C-803 and Song / Yuan SSK firing C-803 in a massive saturation attack, coordinated with KJ-200 AWACS.

China will be the security guarantor for Iran. Iran can use its militia and Shiite networks to undermine pro-US regimes in the Middle East. Iran can distribute advanced Chinese anti-tank missiles like HJ-9 to Hezbollah and Shiite militias in Iraq. Some will find their way to Afghanistan.

Get Turkey on side. Get Pakistan on side. All of the sudden the US is in serious trouble in the Middle East as its enemies enjoy a quantum leap in military technology. The new power bloc in the Middle East of course will be committed to using RMB in oil and gas trade. A super-armed Iran could conceivably roll over Iraq (with help of Shia), Kuwait, Syria and Lebanon, basically recreating the Persian Empire. Then, if China has high-speed railway links to Iran from Xinjiang through Central Asia, China could even open a trading port on the Mediterranean Sea.

I think China should consider to sell Taiwan J-10, J-11B, JH-7A, 054A, 052C, 039 subs & T-99G tanks.

What would US & Japan think?

She is a part of China, isn't She?

Geographer said:

Why doesn't China sanction companies that sell arms to Taiwan?

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Because they would be sanctioning every major defense/aerospace and electronic company in the US and the PRC needs to buy things from those companies too, even for civilian use eg Boeing airliners.

If the sale to Taiwan is through the Pentagons Foreign Military Sales program and not a Direct Commercial Sale, the customer is not Taiwan , its the US DoD so no US company is going to "sanction " sales to Taiwan. They could drag their feet kicking and screaming to some degree but they can;t say no if its a FMS program. Just like Boeing did on the Apache Longbow, they never responded to ROC MND requests for offset proposals but once this was a definite go ahead program from Washingtons viewpoint, they have no choice but to sit down and be nice. The Taiwanese birds are part of a larger US Army contract. Boeing can't turn down a portion of a US Army procurement and not another part (not if they are smart anyway)

A.Man said:

She is a part of China, isn't She?

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Just not the PRC!

Mr T said:

Why worry about something that's outside of your control? The J-20 is years away from being operational, but more importantly we have no credible evidence of how good a plane it will be.

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You are not suggesting that a 5th generation fighter couldn't handle F-16s, right?

siegecrossbow said:

You are not suggesting that a 5th generation fighter couldn't handle F-16s, right?

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My point was in response to what Spartan said. There's no reason to stress about the situation until the J-20 is going to enter service and the ROCAF has a better idea of how good it will be. They can't do anything other than monitor the situation and try to convince the US to help upgrade the airforce.

Suggesting they enter "crisis mode" suggests that will achieve anything. I don't see how it could.

Mr T said:

Why worry about something that's outside of your control? The J-20 is years away from being operational, but more importantly we have no credible evidence of how good a plane it will be.

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Be that as it may, the J-20 is undoubtedly a stealth aircraft. More importantly, the PLA has been undergoing massive modernisation in recent years. In contrast, the ROC military is in dire need of modernisation.

While ROC is unlikely to be able to match PLA's modernisation, it certainly beats whatever they are currently operating. Heck, PLA probably has more missiles pointed at Taipei than the ROC have PAC-3s to defend it with. Surely, as a military, they are not going to rely on hope to maintain their independence?

siegecrossbow said:

You are not suggesting that a 5th generation fighter couldn't handle F-16s, right?

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Plenty of pro-Chinese communications... Do you know what a 5th gen fighter is? Actually a pricey stealthy interceptor. I am pretty sure that mainland China did not get the engine technology, we can see in a bird like the F-22. So wait & see. The J-20 is a simple preliminary model of a F-22 (bad copy for now).
And if you wanna know whether a gen.3+ can shoot down a gen.5 fighter, I dare say YES (sometimes), in dogfight. Seen in UAE recently...

Aero_Wing_32 said:

Plenty of chicoms out there... Do you know what a 5th gen fighter is? Actually a pricey stealthy interceptor. I am pretty sure that mainland China did not get the engine technology, we can see in a bird like the F-22. So wait & see. The J-20 is a simple preliminary model of a F-22 (bad copy for now).
And if you wanna know whether a gen.3+ can shoot down a gen.5 fighter, I dare say YES (sometimes), in dogfight. Seen in UAE recently...

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It might not hurt for you to read up on aeronautical design principles. The J-20, whatever its faults, is not a copy of the F-22 (look at the intakes, wing positioning and design, all movable tailfins).

So a 3+ gen fighter can 'sometimes' shoot down a 5th gen fighter in a dogfight. Big deal. A P-51 piston engine fighter can also 'sometimes' shoot down a gen3+ fighter in a dogfight.

Spartan95 said:

In contrast, the ROC military is in dire need of modernisation.

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Assuming you're correct, there's little the ROCAF can do if the US won't sell it new planes. Taiwan is too small to fund its own lavish stealth project, as a democracy anyway - if it had a North Korea style regime and funnelled 15% of GDP into defence I guess it could.