does that apply to the F-16 A/Bs that Taiwan had at the time? J-10 started out with a much more modern radar.
Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Gollevainen
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After the MKK sales the F-16A/B in Taiwan gained AIM-120 capabilities, so the answer is yes.
It appears that some of the younger members are not quite familiar with the balance of military power across Taiwan Strait merely a quarter century ago. That ROC/Taiwan had considerable air superiority and naval superiority (excluding conventional submarines and very noisy nuclear submarines) over mainland China was pretty obvious for anyone who cared to known such things back then. Such balance of power sustained at least towards the end 1990's if not early 2000. In fact, Taiwan's defense spending was not surpassed by that of mainland China until around late '90s, IIRC.
Another way to remind people how backward PLAN was back then, check out history of the Sino-Vietnam naval skirmish around Spratly Islands in 1988 (Johnson South Reef Skirmish) and see how outmatched PLAN warships were by South Vietnam ones.
Taiwan had one of the most powerful air force and navy in Asia back then. In fact, even today, Taiwan's air force and navy are still one of the more powerful ones in the world relative to its population. It's just that they are vastly overshadowed by Chinese military now in every aspect. Of course, this is nothing extraordinary - China was simply too backward then. History just regresses to mean.
Another way to remind people how backward PLAN was back then, check out history of the Sino-Vietnam naval skirmish around Spratly Islands in 1988 (Johnson South Reef Skirmish) and see how outmatched PLAN warships were by South Vietnam ones.
Taiwan had one of the most powerful air force and navy in Asia back then. In fact, even today, Taiwan's air force and navy are still one of the more powerful ones in the world relative to its population. It's just that they are vastly overshadowed by Chinese military now in every aspect. Of course, this is nothing extraordinary - China was simply too backward then. History just regresses to mean.
In the 1970's and 1980's Taiwan had only F-5s and F-104s against J-7s and then J-8s.
US F-4s (much stronger than the F-5s which were even rejected by the US military) were decimated by Vietnamese Mig-21s (J-7 equivalent) during the Vietnam War.
South Vietnam did not exist in 1988.
It's funny because in 1950 Taiwanese forces in Hainan were obliterated in an amphibious invasion with 1:6 kill ratio for the PLA, one of the very few times in all of history where the attacker gained a kill ratio advantage over the defender in an amphibious invasion.
Strongest in Asia?
Ok, I stand corrected. It was Vietnam. The skirmishes with South Vietnam was in 1974.
What do you mean?
If Taiwan was the strongest in Asia throughout all time before 1980, then what was the 1950 victory of the PLA in Hainan?
In fact, I can already name 2 Asian countries with much stronger militaries before 1980: Japan and North Korea.
Don't misrepresent his argument.
He is saying that the ROC military (navy and air force) was one of the strongest military forces in Asia "back then" -- which he had specified as being the 90s and early 2000s.
He never suggested that the ROC military was "the strongest military force in Asia in all time before 1980". So I'm not sure what a battle from 1950 has to do with anything.
Everything he wrote is pretty reasonable -- yes, the ROC military was one of the strongest in Asia in the 1990s and early 2000s; and yes the ROCAF and ROCN were in fact superior to the PLAAF and PLAN in many domains in that same time period as well.
This shouldn't be a matter of contention.
This.
ROCAF fighter fleet is actually larger than JASDF one, and is more or less comparable with RoKAF.
This is also much more than just about any European fighter fleet taken alone.
So all weaknesses are relative.
Considering Korea has F-15's and F-35's, I'm not seeing it unles you are going by numbers alone.
And even so, the ROKAF would still have an edge having tankers and far more capable AEW&C platforms than the ROCAF.
Numbers alone, of course.
But for an air force in a ROCAF strategic situation, whether their fighter fleet is light or heavy is largely irrelevant.