Posted on 11/05/2017 9:38:56 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
ZUOYING NAVAL BASE, Taiwan — The Hai Pao, one of Taiwan’s four navy submarines, began its service as the Tusk, an American vessel launched in August 1945 at the end of World War II. Its sister submarine, the Hai Shih, is a year older. Neither can fire torpedoes today, though they can still lay mines.
The submarines, said Feng Shih-kuan, Taiwan’s minister of national defense, “belong in a museum.”
The Hai Pao — with its paint-encrusted pipes, antiquated engines and a brass dial with a needle to measure speed in knots — will instead remain in service past its 80th birthday, a relic of a military that once was one of Asia’s most formidable. Taiwan’s aging submarine fleet is but one measure of how far the military balance across the Taiwan Strait has tilted in favor of the island’s rival, mainland China.
A military modernization overseen by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, whose political power reached new heights after last month’s Communist Party congress in Beijing, has proceeded in leaps and bounds, lifted by hefty budget increases that have already made China the world’s No. 2 military spender after the United States, though it is a distant second.
Taiwan’s armed forces, by contrast, have fallen way behind, struggling to recruit enough soldiers and sailors — and to equip those they have. A major obstacle is that countries that might sell it the most sophisticated weaponry are increasingly reluctant to do so for fear of provoking China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory. The unwillingness to anger China extends even to the United States, on which Taiwan has long depended for its defense.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Given the massive increase in China’s economy over the last 30 years, this was inevitable.
Which, in part, is why Taiwan (& Europe) have a hard time "struggling to recruit enough soldiers and sailors" and field a formidable army/navy for themselves.
Relying on the American military & taxpayer can afford you to do many other things (i.e. socialism).
How was it ever one of Asia’s most formidable with only 4 subs?
Closer to home, we see the same phenomenon in Canada. Being under the American nuclear umbrella, the money they would normally have to spend for defense can go into things like baby bonuses and keeping basket cases like the Maritimes from abject poverty.
Taiwans navy was never much.
Its airforce was its main branch.
That is still numerous but hasnt really been upgraded since the late 1990s. Its F-16’s are just block 20. Its Mirage 2000’s are just a bit newer.
Its not that Taiwan was unwilling to upgrade its forces, its just been unable to obtain modern weapons. Nobody will sell them any, or components to make its own advanced aircraft.
Taiwan has been an industrial nation for many years, long enough they should have tooled up to build indigenous weapons or even knock-offs. Too many nations threatened by communism have neglected their self defense, expecting Uncle Sam would come to their rescue. Now that we are 20 trillion in debt, we can’t be depended on.
Just look at the map and it is clear that Taiwan vs China is no contest under normal conditions.
The only geographical threat to Canada is the US, which means we’re under more of a border threat than are they. :^)
I remember the early-2000s in FR where some FReepers would say China posed no threat to Taiwan because (i) they did not have a sea lift capacity to transport troops; and (ii) the Taiwan Air Force and Navy would annihilate them. That was just over 15 years ago, and it just goes to show how much change can occur in such a relatively short time.
Taiwan really needs to think out of the box for its defense needs. However, doing so can be very cost effective.
They will never win in a quality vs. quantity fight. So what they need is a vast number of cheap and effective weapons. For example:
Millions of free floating, “coffee can” naval mines. The ocean currents in the Taiwan Strait are well known. So if the mainland tries to launch a huge flotilla of commercial and warships, there can be a dump of tens or hundreds of thousands of these mines that could severely cripple the flotilla. They probably wouldn’t do much against a warship, but a large commercial ship used as a troop transport could be scuttled.
And if they hadn’t exploded after a given time, they would go inert and sink harmlessly.
Another idea is an “air armada” of “beer can” drones with 1000 pound bombs. Unlike the WW2 Buzz Bombs, they would have a simple off the shelf computer guidance system that would continually update a ‘hard’ guidance system that couldn’t be electronically fried. So if their computer was knocked out, they would continue with their last verified instruction.
A body with a bomb, an engine, and a fuel tank. With a cost under $100,000 per unit, they could crank out thousands of them. They could be launched from a tramp steamer, nowhere near the fight, to hit other mainland cities, even Beijing.
They could get at least 200 of these drones for the price of a single F-16.
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