"At present, China does not represent an aggressive power. Beijing has not resorted to the major use of force in more than 40 years." - Lyle J. Goldstein, U.S. Naval War College
Author is a very enlightened man.
Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Gollevainen
- Start date
Author is a very enlightened man.
Skywatcher
Captain
Mr T, sorry for the late reply (I often forget which threads I post in.
A CM-34 with a Bushmaster II isn't a HIFV (which is often a converted MBT hull with better top and side armor, along with an IFV class armament).
A converted M-60 HIFV would be superior in battlefield superiority to the CM-34 (and for mobility reasons, to the M1A2). It has enough armor to shrug off autocannon fire (and with reactive armor, at least RPGs and very light ATGMs), and if equipped with ATGMs and an APS, can fight against whatever few, if any, PLA MBTs in the first landing wave, and have a chance of survival against ATGMs.
Mr T
Senior Member
Don't apologise, discussions need to come to an end eventually.
That is true, but it would also result in the cost of converting the existing M60s and diminishing their anti-vehicle capability. I'm also not sure what the point in the conversion would be given that an M60 can fire HESH rounds, which are (obviously) effective against infantry. Unless you just meant to give an example.
It's all very well and good to say that, but the man's an academic, not a politician. The US has plenty of pro-China academics and has done for decades. If you check the man's biography it's fairly obvious he's been a sinophile for many years. He's not a recent convert.
You need to watch for members of Congress or formerly Sinosceptic retired presidents changing their views given that right now confronting China is one of the few bipartisan issues there are. Indeed the hardening of views amongst US politicians has happened despite the calls of long-time Sinophiles like Kissinger to be more restrained.
Skywatcher
Captain
Honestly, most of the targets that a M-60 HIFV would engage can be easily handled by autocannon. As for the few that can't, that's the purpose of a TOW/Javelin launcher on the HIFV turret (and frankly, more effective against say a ZTZ-96 ot ZTZ-99 compared to a 105mm cannon).
Even with Sinoscepticism increasing in DC, it doesn't make sense to make Taiwan the center for Sino-American confrontation (the correlation of forces in the Straits grows more and more vastly unfavorable to Taipei, no matter the level of US involvement)
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With the rapidly advancing state of APS systems, this might not be true in the future
Mr T
Senior Member
It sounds potentially to be open to long delays and cost overruns, as I don't believe those are standard US modifications. I would simply look to give the M60s a life extension package. It would probably end up being more cost-effective and delivered quicker.
There's also nothing to stop Taiwanese soldiers carrying Javelins in their transports or mounting TOWs on Humvees (assuming they're not already doing the latter).
Who said that politics has to make sense?
But in this case, I'm not sure to what degree the US has a choice at least for the next few decades. If China takes Taiwan, patriotism in China will go into overdrive because it will be seen that the US backed down. No concessions will be made about how the US was pragmatic or acted "responsibly". It would be taken by many as a sign that China was the top power in Asia, if not the world. In those circumstances, why would the CCP believe the US would be guaranteed to go to war to protect another country like Japan?
Then there's the danger of ultra-nationalism from conquering Taiwan running out of control in China, such that the CCP wouldn't even have the choice of not making further territorial conquest, such as taking the Senkaku Islands and even some of populated Ryuku Islands to get revenge on Japan for the last war. Even if we given Xi credit for being a political superman able to control any situation and calm people's hearts with a few words and a wave of his hand, he isn't going to live forever.
Either way, if China doesn't halt its aggressive foreign policy after taking Taiwan, the US would just be deferring a war until China had even longer to improve its military capabilities.
Now the US helping negotiate a political settlement between China and Taiwan, that would be quite different. But up until now the CCP has refused to allow anyone to get involved in its Taiwan negotiations.
Why bother with Senkaku? Once they have Taiwan, access to Japan will be more or less controlled by China.
Land is no Pokemon cards, you don't have to collect them all. It's more about that you can get from those territories than a straight aggregation of square footage.
In another 4 years, China economy might be some 25% larger than US in nominal terms. And in 10-15 years, China's economy might be 2X the size of US. It really doesn't matter what US does, without the USD being the dominant reserve currency, there will be no fiscal excess to fund any ops. Even the current footprint will likely be untenable by 2030.
Mr T
Senior Member
Accidents do happen, but I'm glad to hear that no one died - I wish everyone involved a speedy recovery. I'm sure they've all been working very hard to keep Taiwan's air defences running in the face of continued Chinese aggression.
Powdered aluminum is highly flammable and tricky to handle. You could literally melt steel when powdered aluminum burns.