Taiwan Military News Thread

[Clouded Leopard]

The paper warned that if the F16C/D sale is nixed, it may indicate the end of the 'arms sales honeymoon' between the US and Taiwan.

But it wouldn't be Taiwan's fault this time if the F-16C/D sale didn't work out; Taipei's already approved the money.

Unless, of course, Taiwan's legislature got cold feet for some reason and decided not to follow through the F-16 sale.

 

[Deleted member 675]

Unless, of course, Taiwan's legislature got cold feet for some reason and decided not to follow through the F-16 sale.

I think the last time it approved money then stopped a project was with the KH-6 missile boat project, when disputes over the tendering process came up.

If the legislative approves something, it will honour the commitment. Otherwise the US would always demand 100% of the money up-front and the installment payment that Taiwan uses would not be available.

 

[yehe]

If I were Taiwan, I would have gone for F15, like the F15K version, F35 would be more ideal ofc, but doubt that can be sold to Taiwan anytime soon, but F16 is not gonna give ROC any tech advantage by the time they got it delivered, let alone much fewer in quantity, think what ROCAF will get is F16C/D Block 50/52.

 

[Deleted member 675]

If I were Taiwan, I would have gone for F15, like the F15K version, F35 would be more ideal ofc

Neither were offered when they were requested last year - the F-35 won't be made available until next decade at the earliest in my opinion, as there's no need to annoy China whilst the plane isn't even being exported yet.

F16 is not gonna give ROC any tech advantage by the time they got it delivered, let alone much fewer in quantity, think what ROCAF will get is F16C/D Block 50/52.

Taiwan needs to replace the F-5s. The F-16 Block 50/52 would give a boost in terms of the capability those had, whilst also providing newly-manufactured jets to tide the ROCAF over until better platforms are made available.

It isn't about getting an advantage - you completely misunderstand the reason they've been requested.

 

[Clouded Leopard]

If I were Taiwan, I would have gone for F15, like the F15K version

If I'm not mistaken, the US specifically rejected F-15 for Taiwan.

F16 is not gonna give ROC any tech advantage by the time they got it delivered, let alone much fewer in quantity, think what ROCAF will get is F16C/D Block 50/52.

F-16 Block 52 is almost certainly going to be it - it's the model requested right now. Taiwan doesn't want to fork over the extra money for AESA and deep offensive strike of the Block 60, and anything below Block 52 would be too primitive for Taiwan's taste - not to mention that Lockheed doesn't make any F-16s below Block 52 anymore, I think.

 

[Clouded Leopard]

If I were Taiwan, I would have gone for F15, like the F15K version.

Another thing to bear in mind is maintenance. The F-16C/Ds share commonality with the 140+ A/Bs that Taiwan already has. Replacing the F-5s with F-16C/D would mean that the ROCAF would streamline from 4 different fighter types to just 3.


Getting F-15 would mean getting a totally different aircraft type, and you'd have to train mechanics and get spare parts etc., and a support infrastructure. Plus, the F-15 is also a big twin-engine aircraft, not like the single-engined F-16 and Mirage 2000s.

 

[Norfolk]

Taiwan needs all the F-16's it can get and as fast as it can get them. At the rate things seem to be going, China will have many new J-10's in service by the time Taiwan's F-16's materialize, if they ever do. If the F-16 deal does not happen, I doubt that Taiwan will find a worthwhile substitute from somewhere else.

It is rather disconcerting that after all this time, when the Taiwanese legislature has finally approved at least some new procurements, suddenly new obstacles to those procurements pop up in Washington of all places. I wonder why. Is the U.S. now unwilling to displease China here, or does the U.S. now think that supplying Taiwan with crucial new armaments will only lead to raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait to critical levels?

 

[Deleted member 675]

It is rather disconcerting that after all this time, when the Taiwanese legislature has finally approved at least some new procurements, suddenly new obstacles to those procurements pop up in Washington of all places.

Well, the budget was heavily delayed and passed less than a month ago. Give it some time for things to move to a conclusion - after all there's still more than 3 months for the deal to be approved, according to the 2007 budget stipulation.

or does the U.S. now think that supplying Taiwan with crucial new armaments will only lead to raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait to critical levels?

If that was the case, it would not have approved the recent AIM-120 sale, which can be regarded as being even more crucial. So it's more to do with whether Washington believes Taiwan has approved enough of the 2001 arms package or not.

Currently only the State Department is actively against the purchase now, whereas last year the DoD was the only one for it. So the odds are currently in Taiwan's favour.

 

[Norfolk]

Currently only the State Department is actively against the purchase now, whereas last year the DoD was the only one for it. So the odds are currently in Taiwan's favour.

Hopeful news, then, but the submarine study will obviously further delay procurement of new subs, which is something that is perhaps just as crucial as new fighters. Are there any indications that the U.S. may be working on a conventional sub design for export? Taiwans seems to be quite limited in its options for buying subs since the Europeans do not seem willing to displease China. Perhaps Australia or even...wait for it...Japan, may be willing to design or even build new subs for Taiwan?

 

[yehe]

I have a hard time believing the Sub deal will ever comes through TBH, the Aussie goverment have never showned any kind of willingness of confront PRC in the recent years, they were even abit reluctent to join the US-Japan lead security talks. Anyway, Aussie economic growth more or less rely on China nowdays. The europeans wouldnt sell any subs, that is shown by EU's recent warning to Taiwan saying the new referendum might distable the region, ofc after some PRC pressure I would believe.
Japan is still bound by law, so they can't sell, and even if they are not bound, they wouldnt, since that could seriously damage the relationship further, which is already pretty cold atm.

If US are gonna make their own desiel sub, that would be a great disaster for the USNAVY, who have been actively opposing any desiel sub to be built in US, and if newly designed and built in US, I will recon the sub will cost enormusly for the ROC to buy, which in turn will be stopped by the ROC legislature for that very reason.