Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Bltizo said:

I doubt one can "hide" an airfield or airbase needed for modern fighter jets in a mountain range given the mass of machinery and people to not only build the base, but also the maintain logistics for it.

Cruise missiles definitely can do U turns, and ballistic missiles will be coming down on a ballistic flight profile anyway. We aren't talking about unguided MLRS rockets here, we're talking about powered cruise missiles which are basically small aircraft, and ballistic missiles being bombs dropping from altitudes of dozens of kilometers at high speed, all with precision guidance.

I don't think the author was advocating "hiding" airbases at all, rather using highways as runways and hardened bunkers in the mountain side. The problem with highways, is that you'll need the flexibility to coordinate your logistics teams with your aircraft after a likely bombardment on command/control locations and logistics sites, which is no easy feat.
The problem with hardened bunkers in mountains, is that once an entrance is identified, one can lob a few penetrating and/or anti airfield missiles at the entrance which will dramatically hinder its availability if not remove it completely. And I doubt PLA is unaware of the important hidden aircraft and command/control bunkers on the island given satellite recon and human intelligence.

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One of those back-ups is located on Taiwan’s east coast inside Chiashan or “Optimal Mountain,” not far from the mouth of a gorge cut through pure white marble. Unlike the gorge, however, no tourists are allowed inside this billion dollar bunker complex. According to first-person accounts, the base is an entire military city built inside a hollowed-out mountain. Not only does it have space inside for parking, arming, and repairing over two hundred fighter aircraft, it also has its own hospital and multiple gas stations serving jet fuel. With ten blast doors that exit out to multiple runways via a long taxiway that can itself be used as an emergency runway, it may be toughest airbase ever built.

Ninety miles down the coastline, Taiwan’s air force is further bolstered by the Shihzishan or “Stone Mountain” complex at Chihhang Air Base. Though somewhat smaller than Chiashan, its labyrinthine tunnels can still shelter some eighty aircraft. Both of these facilities benefit from their strategic locations on the far side of the highest mountain range in East Asia. Missiles fired from the Chinese mainland can’t reach them – they would smash into the side of mountains before they got there.

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The London Times (Oliver August, "SECRET WORLD THAT GUARDS TAIWAN," Hualien, 5/23/01) reported that the Jiashan airbase is Taiwan's most sensitive defense installation where more than 120 fighter jets are hidden inside a mountain to foil PRC attackers. Underground flight crews arm and fuel the jets before they fly out of the hillside protected by anti-aircraft guns. On their return, the planes touch down on a shortened runway along the tunnel entrance before disappearing into the caves again. Taiwan's military regards Jiashan as its last line of defense against a PRC invasion.

The caves are buried under hundreds of feet of granite and the steel doors at the end of the tunnels apparently can withstand nuclear blasts. Arthur Ding, of the Institute of International Relations, "The mountains around Hualien are so steep that any incoming missile would have a trajectory problem. After flying horizontally across the Taiwan Strait the missile would have to clear the top of the mountain and then immediately drop straight down to hit the base."

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Zetageist said:

The author specifically mentioned Chiashan (Jiashan) Airbase and Chihhang Airbase:



Sorry for I am being a noob, this is what I have dug up:

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And according to:

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Chiashan Air Base openings are facing EAST. So only if PLA could fire air, sea or submarine launched cruise missiles from Taiwan's Northeast could possibly damage the base openings. I wonder if Taiwan or U.S. has underwater sonars placed in the waterways between Taiwan-Okinawa and Taiwan-Philippines to detect PLA submarine activities.

I read somewhere PLA has similar mountain side underground air bases.

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Bltizo said:

The authors of both write ups seem to believe the PLA are only armed with rockets rather than cruise missiles and guided ballistic missiles. Hell, guided bombs should be able to do the job as well. All that's required is a diving trajectory near the end phase of the flight.

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Taiwan defense ministry denies scaling back weapons programs

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense rejected Wednesday a local media report that claimed production of the locally developed Wan Chien cluster bomb and other weapons development plans have been reduced due to pressure from the government amid warming Taiwan-China ties.

Defense minister Yen Ming said his ministry always makes decisions in line with the military's combat needs, when asked about the issue during a hearing in the Legislature's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.

There was no "pressure" regarding the Wan Chien cluster bombs, he said at the hearing.

Yen was responding to questions about an Oct. 27 report by the online Storm Media that said mass production of the Wan Chien in 2015 will be reduced by about 70%.

Launched early this year, the Storm Media Group consists of a group of Taiwanese reporters who have previously worked in other media outlets.

The Wan Chien bomb — developed and produced by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology — can be carried by the locally developed Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF), one of Taiwan's main combat aircraft. The institute is Taiwan's main weapons research and development unit.

The Wan Chien can strike targets from a distance to take out an enemy airfield without exposing the IDF to anti-aircraft fire.

In the report, Storm Media also reported that the institute was told by the MND not to mass produce a longer-range version of the Hsiung Feng-2E cruise missile because the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou does not want to agitate cross-strait relations, which have been improved greatly since Ma took office in May 2008.

In another report last week, Storm Media reported that the institution stopped a mass production plan for a medium-range missile with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers.

In response, Yen only said that "our weapons procurement will be made in line with our defense needs."

The defense ministry has issued statements over the past two days in response to the reports, saying that they are false.

The ministry said that the institute has been carrying out weapons development and mass production plans that will not be affected by "external factors."

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antiterror13 said:

quote ......without new F-16 or Mirage-2000 fighters, Taiwan knows that it may soon find itself overwhelmed in the air even though its pilots are far better trained than their mainland adversaries ........ quote

I am not sure about the statement (far better trained) .... perhaps it was correct in 1980s but definitely not the case in 2014. I'd bet at least the PRC top pilots are as good or even better than the Taiwanese top pilots

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Skywatcher said:

the Mainland has at least twice the number of 4th gen (3rd gen if you use the Chinese designation system) fighter compared to Taiwan. And those 4th gen fighter pilots by all accounts are trained pretty darn well.

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Jeff Head said:

But the Chinese Air Force is much more dispersed than Taiwan.

All of Taiwans 4th gen aircraft are concentrted on the Island.

The PRC cannot take (and would not) all of their 4th gen fighters and commit them to the Straits. It would leve them vulnerable elsewhere.

The question is, realistically, how many can the PLAAF and PLAN commit against The ROC if it ever came to it?

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