Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

supersnoop said:

Those numbers seem a bit off.
Last time I saw the numbers were 2.4b for 100 HCDS launchers and 400 Harpoons.

I think this is the right kind of system to buy in terms of a defense perspective. However, I think as people mentioned, PLA has already developed the counter. J-16 covered by J-16D EW as well as Y-8EW to conduct SEAD and then take out these targets. Any surprise Y-8 recon types are the most commonly flown aircraft?

PAVE PAWs is very powerful, but the issue is being a fixed target makes it totally vulnerable to BM attack. If you move HAWK and Patriot batteries to protect it, then that leaves the AShM launchers vulnerable to aircraft attack. Avenger Stingers are useless against J-16.

I think the greatest hinderance to the military on Taiwan is money. There are so many aspects of defense to cover, and the reality is that you can't say "only invest in the air force" or "only invest in the navy", when the reality is that any modern conflict is a combined arms affair. Canada has many times the landmass and about equal population to Taiwan, but only an active air force half the size.

With this in mind, I think they should prioritize self-developed systems.
1. The obvious self-sufficiency angle
2. Minimize cost for buying US equipment

US Defense contractors are public companies, they are not helping you for free. Either make the US government pay for the equipment (like Israel does), or get the cheapest price possible

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tupolevtu144 said:

To be honest there are also dissenting voices in Taiwan's military in whether taiwan should be buying such expensive hardware instead of investing into asymmetric capabilities. But in the end they still bought it after consideration, so i believe the taiwanese military do have a good reason in buying such hardware.

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tupolevtu144 said:

The new numbers are the official cost. Taiwan is currently only buying 32 sets of Harpoon systems (the whole package included) due to high cost. It's very likely that Taiwan will buy the remaining 68 systems but it's not all set yet. As for anti-air missiles you forgot that taiwan has also got the Avenger and Chaparral along with its domestic Sky Bow-1, Sky Bow-2, Sky Bow-3, Antelope, and the upcoming land-based Sky Sword-2 missile.

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siegecrossbow said:

I think I probably didn't make the point too clear in the original post. My opinion is that money spent on glitzy stuff like new tanks and attack helos should be diverted entirely to asymmetric capabilities and tactics/training exercises should change accordingly. Let's not fool ourselves here, the only reason that money is being spent on expensive hardware is political. A tank as heavy as the Abrams is not suited to maneuvering in Taiwan (mountains/ravines/sandy beaches/rice paddies and fruit fields). But it does help politicians score popularity points with the locals.

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tupolevtu144 said:

taiwan is said (by domestic media) to have one of the densest air defenses in the world.

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siegecrossbow said:

The greatest hindrance to the military in Taiwan is the loss of purpose. The goal of the ROC military is to retake the mainland, but the DPP has cut it off from its history and legacy. You can have world class military gear like the Saudis but if your army does not have a clear purpose or soul, you can still lose to inferiorly equipped opponents like the Houthis in Yemen. To make the matters worse, the PLA is neither inferiorly equipped nor does it lack a purpose.

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tupolevtu144 said:

i wont be that confident if i were u. ill argue based on facts not chest-thumping arrogance.

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Gatekeeper said:

Gee. It's come to this. I'm being told by a fresh faced college kid that I'm a chest-thumping arrogant nationalist! Lol.

Dont they ever teach you Taiwan folks to respect your elders, particular the ones with some degree of wisdom which you fresh faced college kids wouldn't know what it is yet.

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Gatekeeper said:

Gee. It's come to this. I'm being told by a fresh faced college kid that I'm a chest-thumping arrogant nationalist! Lol.

Dont they ever teach you Taiwan folks to respect your elders, particular the ones with some degree of wisdom which you fresh faced college kids wouldn't know what it is yet.

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tupolevtu144 said:

well to be honest i have no idea how old you are. if i didnt tell you that im still in college then you wont know that im still in college either. so personally i see all discussion on the internet as equals-to-equals. If we are talking face-to-face and i know how old you are or who you are then it will of course be different.

I also hate how discussion on the internet cannot be as objective as possible. When you argue with someone you should bring up reasons to reinforce your arguement.

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