If a conflict happen, Taiwan airfields will be mulched in an instant anyway...
Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Gollevainen
- Start date
What version of the F-16 does Taiwan have? Are the latest ones not fitted with modern radars, avionics, helmet mounted displays and countermeasures?
I wouldn't discount espionage worries
Top brass in Taiwan (Admirals, Generals, etc.) have been implicated in scandals.
Lower ranks are also suffering from low morale. So there are vulnerabilities from top to bottom.
F-16V, it is the latest version, but total J-20 already outnumbers it. J-16 and newer J-11 should have more powerful radars due to larger size.
Plus some of the F-16V are upgraded from F-16A, so some airframes are quite old. ROCAF no longer intercepts aircraft from mainland due to cost and airframe hours.
F-16V is good, but it is facing near impossible odds.
(1)F-16V is still a modern upgrade with a modern array of western weapons, operating within friendly information environment unless on the offensive. For defensive posture, it is acceptable.
(2)F-16V is far more maintainable, though - especially if dispersed.
(3) Upgraded and new Falcons come in very significant numbers.
(4)Taiwan is full of fighters for its size - squeezing in more will start overfilling the order of battle&ground infrastructure, which won't really do good. Against PLA, an excessively tight order of battle won't be much 'value added', just added losses.
FYI, ROCAF's upfront strength is comparable to that Japan tended to deploy here for its WW2 offensive operations - w/o adjustment, which is sort of unprecedented in the modern world.
There is no choice for them - they already go for ~maximum possible effort within given political and financial background.
Alternative is basically to give up air fight completely, which is even more suicidal.
But Taiwan is seriously stuffed with up-to-date fighters (rather overwhelming advantage over Japan, and will almost catch up to ROKAF within a few years). And while PLAAF/PLANAF are many times larger - they also have more opponents to worry about, and tasks at their hand are far more ambitious than just upfront confrontation.
Do we want fighter presence behind Taiwan, for example?
Even w/o those considerations - China will have to at least keep significant deterrent forces around its borders.
There are opponents that need to be deterred everywhere, and even the sole "safeguarded" sector of the outer border is safeguarded by overstretched Russian VKS. Depending on how the situation goes, at best they may need backup, just in case.
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Well, they're being replaced in all the remaining roles, and their combat value is already borderline nil.
Training is taken, recon is taken(f-16v)/soon to be overtaken(mq-9b).
Yes, they can take off on warning very fast (faster than f-16), but so can f-cks and mirages, and peacetime intercept isn't exactly a viable role for Taiwan.
Before they made sense till the early 2020s, as PLAAF Air order of battle still included a significant portion of older fighters, but by 2023 PLAAF/PLANAF, they are just deathtraps. The existence of older Chinese aircraft somewhere else doesn't excuse them anymore.
Not sure if this is legit or more political theater like that story with CH-47 defection. Anyway story is professor at National Defense University in charge of a thing called ASERC (Advanced System Engineering Research Center) in charge of researching into many military technology was actually involved with a shell company with mainland investors, even applying patents for research results on both side of the strait at the same time through his shell company.
I see nothing wrong with his actions, patents are open to public anyways, might as well apply on the mainland to capture potential future revenue. Money is money, lots of Taiwanese projects probably have mainland money behind it. This news looks like politico theater.