Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

adeptitus said:

If SARS was used as bio-weapon, you have >90% average chance of survival from exposure. :roll:

During the Cold War era, Yugoslavia walked a fine line between East and West, and their naval industry produced at least 14 Heroj, Una, Mala, and Sava class submarines. Many of these are currently rusting in the port of Tivat in Montenegro, waiting for a buyer (cough).

The Heroj and Sava class were ~1,000 ton dispacement subs and carried 6 x 533mm torpedoes. The Yugoslav Navy didn't have blue prints from Russia or US, they simply built their own and even exported the design to North Korea (Sang-O class).

If ROCN wanted to build its own submarine, I think the level of access to western technology is much higher than what the Yugoslav Navy had. So if the Yugoslavs could do it with less money, why can't Taiwan built its own?

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Because the Yugoslavian subs were primitive and were no better than the subs from World War II?

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kliu0 said:

Subs....wasn't a Taiwanese company keen on self-manufacturing a sub? But lacked government funding, it was in the Defence Technology Monthly (Taiwan) September Issue.

They even made the hull and everything but lacked government approval.

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CSB has made some test parts of a hull - it says that it could build a submarine if it had the money. But at the moment the general view seems to be that it would be a waste of money and nothing useful would result.

The domestic route will probably only be tried if the US option remains shelved and no foreign option can be found via the back door. Even then it might not happen because of the high cost.

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Amid its economic crisis US decides to stur up water a bit.

First the Arms package to Taiwan, which is seen by many as tactics to blackmail china to cough up more money to rescue its failing economy.

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By Matt Steinglass
07 October 2008

The United States and Vietnam have discussed possible U.S. sales of weapons and spare parts to Vietnam,as well as American military help with disaster relief and a range of other issues. The two nations' first strategic dialogue on political, defense and security issues shows the continuing improvement in U.S.-Vietnamese relations, as Matt Steinglass report from Hanoi.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Mark Kimmitt says the talks in Hanoi touched on a wide range of security affairs.

"Primarily peacekeeping, military assistance, security assistance, potential arms transactions, [that are] lethal, [and] non-lethal, and a host of other issues of mutual concern," he said.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh calls the talks, which ended Monday, productive.

Minh says the dialogue helped contribute to the strengthening of ties between Vietnam and the U.S.

The Vietnamese military has asked the U.S. to supply spare parts for its American-made helicopters, leftovers from the Vietnam War. The two governments also discussed integrating Vietnamese soldiers into United Nations peacekeeping operations, and American military help with disaster relief in Vietnam.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense James Clad, who was also at the talks, says Washington simply wants to develop the same kind of military cooperation with Vietnam that it already has with other countries in the region.


"It would be incorrect to cast it is as something very bilateral. We have, for example, routine exchanges with the Malaysians, with the Indonesians, with the Filipinos, with the Thais. And I think as a large ASEAN country, Vietnam is more and more coming into that world," he said.

Experts generally see the growing U.S.-Vietnamese security relationship as an effort by both to balance rising Chinese power. China and Vietnam have a dispute over the ownership of two island groups in the South China Sea which may hold rich undersea oil deposits.

But Clad says the U.S. wants Vietnam and China to have good relations, to promote regional stability.

Martin Gainsborough, a Vietnam expert at Bristol University in Britain, says the talks carry promise for Vietnam, but also domestic political risks.

"Individual leaders that are, in a sense, fronting this dialogue - they have to be careful personally that they're not seen as leaning too heavily toward the U.S. Again, not least because of the relationship with China," he said.

The two sides hope to make the talks an annual event. The next me

kliu0 said:

Have they considered co-op manufacturing and design of submarines? That would help both nations and reduce Taiwan's dependency upon the US.

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Err, I think that Taiwan proposed the US build the first couple, it help produce part of the next batch and then finish the last batch itself. But the US said it would bump the costs up by a lot, so Taiwan seems to have backed down on that - even if it still hopes for some work.

As for design, I guess that Taiwan could share it's 80% of the Hai Lung design with the US to help it come up with something. But it doesn't know how to make the command-and-control systems, so again the US would probably have to do that by itself or hope for outside (low profile) help.

The U.S. government is "faithfully implementing" the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and will continue to evaluate two other pending arms sales to Taiwan, a U.S. State Department official said Monday.

The official from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was referring to Taiwan's requests to procure diesel-electric submarines and Black Hawk helicopters from the United States.

"Our internal foreign military sales process is continuing. We have turned down nothing," the official told the Central News Agency.

The Bush administration notified Congress Oct. 3 that it had approved sales to Taiwan of 330 Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles, 32 sub-launched Harpoon Block II missiles, 30 AH-64D Block III Apache Longbow attack helicopters, 182 Javelin guided anti-tank missile rounds and 20 Javelin command launch units, and system upgrades for four E-2T aircraft. However, two other items under review - diesel-electric submarines and Black Hawk helicopters - were not included on the list.

Asked why the notifications were only sent to Congress on the final day of the congressional session before a scheduled adjournment, the official said Washington's decisions on foreign military sales to Taiwan "are not controlled by a timetable. We only recently finished our consultations and arrived at this decision on those items," he said.

Washington makes decision regarding weapons sales to Taiwan based on the defense needs of Taiwan and the TRA under which the United States makes available items for Taiwan's self-defense, the official added.

On the Bush administration's position toward Taiwan's request for F-16C/D fighters, the official said "we do not comment on potential weapons systems in the foreign military sales program."

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Re: Amid its economic crisis US decides to stur up water a bit.

I doubt it. Containment of China by neo-cons has always been the desire before their financial crisis. Besides many in the US are paranoid over Chinese investment especially into important sectors, military or economic, sensitive to national security. Americans in general believe they are the top dog in the world and don't need anyone's help especially China's. So most Americans aren't even entertaining the notion thus could care less. China made it easier for Americans to buy homes keeping rates low and inflation down. Americans have no sense of it. So whether or not China has the ability and helps the US out of their troubles, the vast majoity of Americans won't even recognize it. I'm just waiting for someone to start blaming China for all this collapse because buying US debt made it easier for Americans to buy homes. You already have two US politicians blaming minorities for this meltdown because banks made it easier for them to homes. So apparently to them only minorities defaulted on their loans thus caused all this mess.

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What about new generation fighter aicrafts, perhaps some Rafales for Taiwan ROC? They kicked ass of the best US F-16 at Nellis (Red Flag 2008).

We also heard of Eurofighters last year (now the EF project is becoming really costly for all the european partners involved in it).

Or maybe JAS39 Gripen. Single engine as the F-16.