Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Gloire_bb said:

I don't know, the vessel seems to be a dedicated high speed minelayer for high risk littoral environments(read: the Taiwan straight itself), as well as a surface combatant for the same area.

Twin hull offers both speed and flat volume for additional mine "lines", and its downsides in this role are negliable.
Why not?

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Skywatcher said:

It's still a FAC. Putting all the machinery that high up above the waterline increases that damages that even smaller missiles like ATGMs will do.

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An existing Taiwanese No.1 Wan Xiang CAPTOR mine.

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A top U.S. diplomat for Southeast Asia on Friday urged Pacific island nations not to withdraw diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, warning that Chinese pressure to change Taiwan’s international standing threatens to increase the possibility of conflict.

U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia

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spoke to reporters in Canberra at the end of a three-day Australian visit for talks with officials in the recently reelected government on expanding their security alliance.

Six Pacific island nations give diplomatic recognition to Taiwan, accounting for a third of the self-governing democratic island's diplomatic allies around the world. But they are under intensifying pressure from Beijing to switch allegiances as it builds influence in the region.

Murphy said diplomatic decisions should not be influenced by China.

"China is attempting to reduce Taiwan's diplomatic relations in the region and that's kind of heavy-handed," Murphy said.

"It gives rise to tensions by changing the status quo and then the possibility of conflict," he added.

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Prime Minister Rick Hou had promised to review the nation’s relations with Taiwan before he lost power at elections last month. Switching recognition to China, the Solomons’ biggest export market, remains a live issue.

Murphy said the United States has “strong diplomatic relations” with the Solomons, and had congratulated new Prime Minister

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.

Murphy declined to say whether he discussed with Australian officials concerns of some security analysts that China wants to construct a deep-water military base somewhere in the Pacific.

He said Chinese militarization in the Pacific would be as destabilizing as its militarization of disputed islands in the South China Sea.

"A growing military presence anywhere in the region of a country like China that doesn't work on a rules-based approach or adhere to international standards is and should be of concern," Murphy said.

"We have a lot of national interests in the region that are built on freedoms of commerce, navigation and overflight. We have key partners and the establishment of a military presence there, the notion, the concept is indeed quite troubling," he added.

Murphy on Saturday flies to Australia’s nearest neighbor, Papua New Guinea, where the pro-Beijing Prime Minister Peter O’Neill backs China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The United States and Australia have committed to

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on Manus Island.

Murphy said the Lombrum Naval Base expansion was about "partnership with Papua New Guinea and meeting its needs," not denying China a military presence in the poor nation for more than 8 million people.

When Australia and Papua New Guinea announced the upgrade last October, China cautioned both countries to discard “Cold War” thinking, referring to an era when the world was less integrated.

“The Pacific island countries should not be the sphere of influence of any country,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at the time.

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The island of Taiwan is spending billions of dollars to upgrade fighter jets purchased from the US, yet they are still no match for the Chinese mainland's J-11s, mainland experts said, as the island conducted its first highway takeoff and landing drill with the F-16V at the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Tuesday.

The J-11 is not even the mainland's best fighter jet, analysts noted.

A US-made F-16V led other jets in taking off and landing on a highway in Changhua county in western Taiwan Tuesday morning as a highlight of the five-day Han Kuang live-fire exercises that started on Monday, Taipei-based The China Post reported on Wednesday.

Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen said the drill was challenging and "demonstrated the defense capability and trustworthiness of Taiwan's military," the report said.

However, Fu Qianshao, a mainland air defense expert, told the Global Times that although highway emergency takeoffs and landings could be helpful in combat, the drill is more of a temporary training rather than a regular operation.

"It would be an exaggeration to consider such contingency training as a combat capability boost," Fu said.

The drill also marked the exercise debut of the first F-16 upgraded to the "V'' configuration, featuring advanced radar and other combat capabilities, the Associated Press reported.

Taiwan's air force is spending about $4.21 billion to upgrade 144 F-16A/Bs to the F-16V, and is trying to purchase new ones from the US, the AP report said.

The F-16V is a 3.5-generation (or 4.5 generation, according to another widely used classification) jet built by the US, and while its fire control and weapons systems are improved, their contributions to the overall combat capability are limited, Fu said.

Compared to the Chinese mainland's 3.5-generation lightweight fighter jets, the J-10B and J-10C, the F-16V holds no significant advantage, Fu said, noting it is no match to the mainland's J-11 heavy fighter jet series.

China has already commissioned its fourth-generation stealth fighter jet, the J-20, which is far more advanced than any third-generation ones and comparable to the US' most advanced fighter jet, the F-22, military observers said.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

“Mainland experts” and Global times
It’s a propaganda article.
It doesn’t need to be a Uber fighter just enough to keep the Mainland at bay.
In a one to one based on what we know of J10 vs What we know of F16V it’s a fair matchup.
J11 is a flanker derivative yeah it’s a better bird as is J20 but near term it’s good enough.

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