Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

supersnoop said:

You can’t have 24/7 100% aircraft coverage. There is still air defence to contend with as well. From Zhuhai air show there were many shipping container launched missiles. Should the situation deteriorate, I’m sure it would not be hard to develop something similar in Taiwan.

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Yes you can have 24/7 air coverage, especially with UCAVs.

Taiwan is cursed by geography in being too close to China and being too small an island that it has zero strategic depth. Everything on the island can be monitored, and anything on the island can be hit within a matter of minutes by missiles launched from the mainland.

It would also be extremely foolish to just take it for granted that anything China can develop Taiwan could too.

And even if Taiwan does develop shipping container AShMs, so what? Without radar support, those missiles would be essentially useless beyond visual range of their targets. Also, unless we are talking about hypersonics, lone AShMs have almost no chance of getting through modern fleet air defences. They need to be fired in large numbers and precisely co-ordinated to arrive on target at the same time to have any chance of getting through.

That is the dilemma, the bigger and more sophisticated the attach, the greater the chance of it being detected before it could be launched.

It’s no coincidence that China is putting radars and EW pods on its UCAVs. Those would be perfect for SEAD/DEAD ops as well as detecting and taking out AShM search and targeting radars.

After the initial first day of conflict battles, I would expect the PLA to permanently park a few dozen UCAVs over Taiwan 24/7 supporting dozens of J16s, who will also act as QRF.

Once the actual invasion starts, expect those numbers to at least double or triple.

supersnoop said:

You can’t have 24/7 100% aircraft coverage. There is still air defence to contend with as well. From Zhuhai air show there were many shipping container launched missiles. Should the situation deteriorate, I’m sure it would not be hard to develop something similar in Taiwan.

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Sure maybe not 100% control of the airspace, but with the number of missiles and just rocket projecters (there's like many 200km+ rocket launcher vehicles in China that can shot over the strait) it should be a given that all airfields, radars etc. will be destroyed/paralyzed in the first big wave of attacks.

After that it shouldn't be hard to establish control over the air, and even whenever soldiers from Taiwan tries to deploy drones etc. chances are they would be shoot down (I believe the Zhuhai airshow showed air to air missiles for drones, and that was for export so safe to assume that PLAAF have it already).

EDIT: Also the person above me has answered (just became visible after I posted lol).

Just musing on whatever chance they have.
I think it was already previously mentioned that protecting the radars would be a huge weakness.
Obviously there is a huge force disparity, so for discussion's sake, you just have to overlook some of it.
Otherwise everything becomes "It can't survive cross-strait volley of cheap Beidou guided MLRS".

Look at the T-5 trainer just posted. Realistically, it is probably barely a match for JF-17 (which isn't capable enough for PLAAF) let alone something in the class of Su-30/J-16. However, the ROC government can't do nothing, and can't solely rely on the USA either. However, it allows the F-CK-1 production to continue and opens the door for modernization options. So if we look at it from that perspective, it is a good project.

supersnoop said:

Just musing on whatever chance they have.

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I've also personally been watching some videos about the taiwanese military and it's been quite hilarious (亚洲特快) such as when something like 3 special forces soldiers drowned in an exercise at the coast (apparantly only 1.5 meters deep water, and a big wave capsized the inflatable boat lol).

Michaelsinodef said:

I've also personally been watching some videos about the taiwanese military and it's been quite hilarious (亚洲特快) such as when something like 3 special forces soldiers drowned in an exercise at the coast (apparantly only 1.5 meters deep water, and a big wave capsized the inflatable boat lol).

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That was last year or 2019 I believe. It was three members of the Marines. I don't know if the ROCMC are supposed to be tougher than regular infantry.

I was discussing this with another member and I was accused of having a low opinion of ROC military for drowning. My response was it's not acceptable regardless of my opinion.

I was part of a exercise once where some personnel were injured due to a motor vehicle accident (Not Taiwan in case you were wondering). A higher ranking person told me that the thing that if you are hurting your own people during training, then you're doing it wrong. Obviously we are supposed to be training at a high level, and real operations are stressful, but this is basically friendly fire.

Michaelsinodef said:

I've also personally been watching some videos about the taiwanese military and it's been quite hilarious (亚洲特快) such as when something like 3 special forces soldiers drowned in an exercise at the coast (apparantly only 1.5 meters deep water, and a big wave capsized the inflatable boat lol).

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Can I as someone who has done some training with those boats opine that it almost happened to me once, so it is not unthinkable. boat capsizes and you are caught underneath with all your gear, and if there were other gears in the boat that weighs down on you while you try to find a way above water, it could be a pretty deadly situation there.

drowingfish said:

Can I as someone who has done some training with those boats opine that it almost happened to me once, so it is not unthinkable. boat capsizes and you are caught underneath with all your gear, and if there were other gears in the boat that weighs down on you while you try to find a way above water, it could be a pretty deadly situation there.

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Aren’t they supposed to have quick detach plate carriers for marines as standard for precisely this reason?

To drown under such circumstances would be embarrassing for civilians LARPing around, for professional marines, who’s whole point is operating on boats, that’s just unacceptable unless there were truly once in a century kind of freak events, which if that was the case, I am sure it would have been loudly and widely proclaimed.

Occam’s razor suggests this is just more of the same well known and widespread training and competence deficit the RoC military has suffered as a chronic condition for decades now.

To be frank, I would rate their moral and combat proficiency as below that of Desert Storm Iraqi regulars, never mind the republican guard.

I would bet good money that if the PLA wanted to flex, they could take Taiwan with just air power and special forces.

In realistic scenarios, by the time the amphibious forces land, the war would already be over and what is left of the ROC military will surrender en mass as soon as news spread of the mass landings. The few die hards who watched too many Hollywood/Bollywood movies will be obliterated like they were training dummies.

Exo-suit in development for the Taiwanese military.

Colin Koh is very sinophobic but I will share this Tweet.

ROC Apache dropped a hellfire rack in flight during exercise by accident.

I didn't know there was a functionality to drop them in flight? Could you drop the rocket pod in flight too once it's empty?