Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
Ambivalent said:
Um, that article was published last week. It just landed in the mail box at work.
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Great, so next time just check the older pages back to when an article was published before posting. ;)

flyzies said:
Given how PLA is covered in secrecy, to a more or less degree everyone will be guessing. But based on how far we've seen PLA advanced in the previous 7 years, i would say the next 7 years of advancement would be at similar pace.
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I'm not so certain it would be like that. It can be easier to close the gap in terms of capabilities/technology (compared to US-Europe) than reach parity. Achieving the same level of advancement in the next seven years may be harder.

Youre the one that chose to quote the only one sentence of my response that touched on politics
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I quoted several parts of your response. I picked up that bit because I didn't want more political discussion and the thread to be closed (again).

And if you read my entire previous response, you will see i am not hypothesising how close China and Taiwan may or may not be in the future. I was pointing out when US makes the decision whether to sell F-16s or not, it would be a political decision made by Obama's Administration, not a military one.
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You didn't mention the Obama administration or the US in that post (870), you talked about the Taiwanese political landscape. Surely you can see why I would have said that comment was off-topic.

It's both a political and military decision.
 
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adeptitus

Captain
VIP Professional
I do not believe Japan's attempt to purchase the F-22 will be successful this time. The export ban on F-22 will remain for some years. There's no reason for a watered down F-22 when the F-35 is already a watered down F-22. They'd just simply export the F-35. The Japanese want the prestige of owning F-22's like the F-15J in old days, but not this time (at least not now). Also, reports claim that Japan would may some $1 billion for the R&D expense of a special F-22 "J" variant that US could export. I'd cite UAE's F-16 E/F, which they paid $3 billion R&D for. It'd be silly to think a F-22 variant would cost only $1 billion to develop in comparison.

The US is fairly conservative with exporting military technology. Currently the F-16C/D is on par with the J-10 and it's not likely that ROC government would receive anything better. When the PLAAF is flying J-10 equipped with advanced AESA radar and munitions, the US might upgrade export to F-16E/F. When PLAAF deploy stealthy fighters (J-XX?), the US would export F-35 to ROC.

The F-22 is the "ace" in USAF inventory that far surpasses everyone else. Giving it away too early would be dumb.
 
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flyzies

Junior Member
Mr T said:
You didn't mention the Obama administration or the US in that post (870), you talked about the Taiwanese political landscape. Surely you can see why I would have said that comment was off-topic.

It's both a political and military decision.
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The military decision part has already been made. Every one of the decision makers in Washington have known for years Taiwan needs those F-16s. What's left is the political decision whether to sell or not.

When US makes that political decision, they would consider a whole range of factors...that i am not going to list because theyre obvious...and one of those factors is the politcal landscape in Taiwan.

And as always, but especially when it comes to this situation, political decision trump military ones.
 
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Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
flyzies said:
When US makes that political decision, they would consider a whole range of factors...that i am not going to list because theyre obvious...and one of those factors is the politcal landscape in Taiwan.
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I take it that you're now talking about the current situation. In your earlier post you were talking about the theoretical situation after the deal would be approved and even by the time the F-16s had been delivered. "Team Obama" aren't going to dig their crystal balls out over this.

The Bush administration may have got to the point where it thought Taiwan needed the aircraft, but Team Obama may need to revisit that point for itself. If we accept your view that they wouldn't change the balance of power much, the US may take a military view that the $4+ billion would be better spent elsewhere.
 
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Aero_Wing_32

Aero_Wing_32

Junior Member
back to the technical aspect of the F16c/d (future/probable) deal. What kind of radar would be installed inside? Do you really think that the AESA kind of radar is now more than highly necessary for the ROCAF fleet?
 
Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
Yes, Aero, good idea.

I think the proposed upgrades for the existing fleet suggest that new fighters would have the AN/APG-68(V)9 radar as is usual. I don't think it would get AESA as only the United Arab Emirates Air Force have those in their Block 60s.

Although AESA is something Taiwan might like to have, I don't think it's critical at this point.

Does anyone else have a view on how new F-16s might be configured?
 
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