Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Recognition is all a country is. ISIS issues passports to it’s members you know? And have their own Islamic courts. Does that justify a F-35 sale to them if America knew they would use it against China?

There are rules is what I’m saying.

leaving the legal aspects aside, it doesn’t matter how they are shipped.

If the incoming hardware is considered any type of dangerous, it would be intercepted and confiscated for destruction as illegal armaments.

I’m not saying America has no chance to do it, this is after all the country that feeds prisoners rectally, but there is nothing good would come out of it for them. They’ll be restarting the Cold War, losing a bunch of F-35 for a stupid reason, losing their cred as a country and open themselves up to deadlier attacks.

What would they possibly gain from this?

If they want war, they can just outright attack Chinese soil and probably lose less F-35 in the prequel that way.

Biscuits said:

If the incoming hardware is considered any type of dangerous, it would be intercepted and confiscated for destruction as illegal armaments.

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You can try to intercept American shipment bound to Taiwan and see what happens next.

Meanwhile, in our world:

Contrary to what you think, isn’t the first time this happened.


That’s a bunch of soldiers lugging confiscated US delivered weapons to armed groups in Tibet.

You wanna know what it might look like? Just photoshop F-35 on the rifles.

Honestly you should be terrified if the answer is “yes, America can send advanced weapons to random armed groups”. Because that means the reverse is also true...

Fact 1) Taiwan is not IS
Fact 2) the PRC may try to prevent sale of weapons by the U.S. to Taiwan and has done so in the past.
The extent of which is purely political.
3) If you haven't noticed tensions between the "Peaceful Rising power" and Asia have been rising for decades. In fact many already say a new cold war exists.

Biscuits said:

What would they possibly gain from this?

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The Status Que.
For every major step taken by the PRC the surrounding Asian states have taken a counter step. Not to start a war but prevent one. Nations don't fight wars they know they can loose.
Deterrence is the art of assuring the other guy that they can't win without paying a steep price in blood.

Biscuits said:

You wanna know what it might look like? Just photoshop F-35 on the rifles.

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So, that f-16v was intercepted?
It still is a pretty advanced piece of tecnology. Many would be interested to have a look at an actual AN/APG-83.

Gloire_bb said:

So, that f-16v was intercepted?
While no f-35, it still is a pretty advanced piece of tecnology. Many would be interested to have a look at an actual AN/APG-83.

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They smuggled replacement parts inside and upgraded an old one for review purposes. The supposed sale is late 2020s. Can’t intercept what hasn’t left port yet.

Ok but I do, agree with your general gist that America is definitely more eager to challenge the situation than what I give them credit for.

Assuming that, what would be the logical counter? If passive interception is not enough to deter attempts to undermine, would an Israel-style proactive defense help more?

Gloire_bb said:

This list only includes commited countries, as far as I can tell.

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Battleship Gloire, inside
#2888 Gloire_bb, Yesterday at 5:44 PM
you, while referring to a hypothetical acquisition of F-35s by Taiwan, made a claim of a simple integration (according to you) of Taiwanese AShMs on the F-35;

I called it out Yesterday at 8:19 PM
pointing to the fact of not even the Pentagon integrating its state-of-the-art AShM;

you then responded inside
#2892 Gloire_bb, Today at 2:14 AM
with
"Imho, if allowed, they simply will buy weapons associated with the f-35.
Otherwise this point was more about requirement. I doubt it would be a big problem to store air-launched missile externally on a locally developed aircraft."

so Today at 6:50 AM
I again pointed to likely difficulties in integrating Taiwanese AShMs on the F-35, of course sticking to your original claim of a simple integration (according to you) of Taiwanese AShMs on the F-35;

you then responded with
"This list only includes commited countries, as far as I can tell."
#2895 Gloire_bb, Today at 9:45 AM

I give up.

Jura said:

you, while referring to a hypothetical acquisition of F-35s by Taiwan, made a claim of a simple integration (according to you) of Taiwanese AShMs on the F-35;

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Re-read my post, please.
That phrase has no connection to the f-35, onlly general checkbox to fill. You are valiantly fighting against windmills.

Gloire_bb said:

Imho, if allowed, they simply will buy weapons associated with the f-35.
Otherwise this point was more about requirement. I doubt it would be a big problem to store air-launched missile externally on a locally developed aircraft.

I honestly don't know Taiwan all that well(even specifically excluded it from my thesis several years ago, hah). But on a first look, it's a country with a big and modern fighter force, strong economy(comparable to Turkey), robust tech sector with some aircraft knowhow, and, finally, a country with very real permanent risk to its status quo.
Am i forgetting something?

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Taiwan's economy is only about half of that of Turkey's.

And their defense budget comes out to about $10-12 billion.

How are they going to pay for a meaningful purchase of F-35s (never mind building their own stealthy VTOL fighter)?

Skywatcher said:

Taiwan's economy is only about half of that of Turkey's.

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610 billion as of 2018, against 713 for Turkey(IMF)
Turkey is an example of country with ongoing 5th gen project.
Taiwan has much deeper background in microelectronics and independent jet production, though, with actual production 4th generetion jet fighter under their belt.

Skywatcher said:

How are they going to pay for a meaningful purchase of F-35s

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...and certainly larger economy than Norway or Belgium, both of which are f-35 customers. Unlike these two, however, f-35 isn't just a loyality token, because the very status quo of Taiwan is always under question.

Skywatcher said:

never mind building their own stealthy VTOL fighter

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It depends on how far their ambitions are going.
May very well be perfectly doable.