Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

AssassinsMace said:

Well I'm giving some counter propaganda back since they wanted to display their Hellfires to China.

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That was years ago. Why are you bringing it up now? It's not like this is the ROC military Twitter feed.

Just like bragging about Reapers is a message to China.

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Who's bragging here? I'm not even aware the Taiwanese government is bragging. They seem to make the same standard positive message whenever any significant sale is made, as almost any country would when they're buying new stuff for their militaries.

It's like you're having an argument with an imaginary person.

gelgoog said:

They'll likely try to use the drones to go past the middle of the line just line the PRC is doing. At over $100million a drone they can easily be taken out with conventional air to air missiles though.

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I doubt that. They'll stay on the Taiwanese side, unless it's fairly obvious China is preparing for war and they need confirmation.

I also remember when Taiwan wanted to show off a dozen surface to air missiles. Half were Taiwanese and other the half were American. Over half failed to launch.

AssassinsMace said:

I also remember when Taiwan wanted to show off a dozen surface to air missiles. Half were Taiwanese and other the half were American. Over half failed to launch.

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Mace, why are you having an argument with an imaginary person? (Good as, as he seems to live in an imaginary world). Lol

For one thing I don't know where in this world, Taiwan is recognised as a country (except by about a dozen or so of the tiny islanders in the Pacific).

Why don't this imaginary person go and ask his government whether or not they recognised Taiwan as a country?

Skywatcher said:

Why bother? Arming the MQ-9B would be a waste of money, since there's no way they'd be survivable in any sort of conceivable combat scenario in the Straits.

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They can fly in other directions, though.
In case of hostilities their effectiveness is going to diminish, but it won't disappear.
P. s. on a funny side - US has a curious habit of selling Taiwan something as soon as Taiwan is about to develop indigenous capability of the same kind. Fighters, ASCM, drones...

Gloire_bb said:

They can fly in other directions, though.
In case of hostilities their effectiveness is going to diminish, but it won't disappear.
P. s. on a funny side - US has a curious habit of selling Taiwan something as soon as Taiwan is about to develop indigenous capability of the same kind. Fighters, ASCM, drones...

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The only direction they could fly those MQ9s is east in a conflict scenario if they don’t want them shot out of the air like target drones. What good will those drones be out there?

The only use for these drones would be peacetime surveillance and intel gathering for the Americans.

Basically the ROC is paying 100m a pop to buy these drones and fly them at their own expense to help the Americans gather intel on China.

On top of that, with Trump on his way out, Taiwan might be in Biden’s bad books for all their overt and covert support for Trump during the elections, this arms purchase being one of them, so they might not only get zero gratitude and instead contempt from the new Biden administration for this massive bribe.

Its hard to think of a more pathetic position to be in.

plawolf said:

The only direction they could fly those MQ9s is east in a conflict scenario if they don’t want them shot out of the air like target drones. What good will those drones be out there?

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Observation and control Eastern and South-eastern approaches themselves are important enough to bother.

Invasion routes are important, but so is the direction of potential US intervention. Taiwan can't win on its own anyway.

Gloire_bb said:

Observation and control Eastern and South-eastern approaches themselves are important enough to bother.

Invasion routes are important, but so is the direction of potential US intervention. Taiwan can't win on its own anyway.

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These are entirely the wrong drones for sea surveillance never mind control. How is a MQ9 supposed to control anything when even an 056 will be able to shoot them down with contemptuous ease?

As for directing US forces, please. As if the US would take any orders from Taiwan. Hell, the Americans will probably shoot the drones down themselves if Taiwan flew them anywhere near to their previous fleets.

China can take revenge by buying weapons from Russia and receiving TOT. China's economy is better than Taiwan's. and more importantly, now Russia is an enemy of the United States. Buying weapons from Russia gives China more new technology, and helps "the enemy of the enemy".

Taiwan buys the F-16, China can order 200 Mig-35/Su-35/Su-57s from Russia and receive TOT
Taiwan buys UAVs, China can order 200 Mi-28s or Ka-52 with TOT

With a defense budget of more than 170 billion USD, spending 20-30 billion USD to buy new weapons is not a burden for China.

Americans will have to rethink hundreds of times before selling weapons to Taiwan because China's revenge will hurt Americans more. China gets new technology and the US enemy (Russia) gets more money.

plawolf said:

How is a MQ9 supposed to control anything when even an 056 will be able to shoot them down with contemptuous ease?

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Like Armenian Osas shoot down Bayraktars? Reaper is a MALE drone with a powerful optical suite.

But it's a weird match-up anyways. If such a drone suddenly disappears - it's a good signal on its own, because it's either a long range fighter sweep "around the corner"(which is actually quite troublesome to organize; it isn't just about range), or a surface task force.
On top of that, there are other sensor options for maritime reapers, too.

plawolf said:

As for directing US forces, please. As if the US would take any orders from Taiwan.

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They can't hope for more anyways. Either US intervention comes at some point, or they're mathematically doomed.
For it to come, they have to at least try to keep approaches to the Island open/contested.