ABSOLUTE BEAUTY!!
Posted on 03/08/2010 8:07:20 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Only the United States-made F-16 fighter jets were strong enough to help Taiwan repel an attack from China's more sophisticated aircraft, reports said yesterday. The Chinese-language Liberty Times daily said internal Ministry of National Defense reports showed the air force's Indigenous Defense Fighters and French-made Mirage 2000 jets were not up to the standards of China's most recent aircraft.
Taiwan has been trying to obtain upgraded F-16 C/D jets from the U.S., but the Obama Administration has so far failed to agree on the deal.
One Russian-supplied Sukhoi-30 from China's air force was the equivalent of 2.8 Mirages or 1.7 IDFs, the MND report said, according to the Liberty Times.
The F-16 would draw level with the Su-30, making the U.S. jet the strongest aircraft in Taiwan's arsenal, the paper said.
The performance of the air-to-air missiles used by the fighter jets reportedly played an important part in determining the rating of the planes in the survey. Taiwan's F-16s use the AIM-120, the IDF are equipped with the locally made Sky Sword- 2, while the Mirages come with the Mica.
The French missiles only had a range of 60km, compared to at least 100km for all the other missiles used by either Taiwan or China, according to the Liberty Times. The paper quoted an unnamed pilot who said the distance did not matter too much because it was only possible to recognize whether another aircraft was friend or enemy from 50km or less.
The pilot said the Mirage was excellent in escaping enemy-fired missiles, and that the military report might have been written to pave the way for the purchase of the new F-16s.
(Excerpt) Read more at etaiwannews.com ...
ping!
Note the use of the words “new F-16s.” These are newly manufactured milcraft, not old airframes patched together.
I still say, bang for the buck it will be another generation before the F-16 can be replaced as the ultimate MRF.
Taiwan must adopt the policy of “what are you willing to pay to defeat me.” If they do not, they are lost.
Taiwan has the technology and industrial base to do this very very quickly. If they do not, they are lost.
Pretty pic, my friend!
Pretty successful platform, now over 40 years since they started to draw it on paper.
They’ll need a whole bunch of them to stop China, though.
The Taiwanese also need to work on SAM supression also.
F-16 Ping.
How well does the F-16 (any variant) stack up against the F-15, F-18, F-35 or F-22.
Now, WHO is making equipment that is equivalent to any of that?
Compare the Ak-47 to the M-16. Same with the F-16.
The question boils down to whether or not the Soviet philosphy of a lot of something is good enough. I don’t know if the War of Agression Against Finland, or WWII in general prove anything in that regard.
But I’ll tell you one thing: and handful of F-22’s blows any crap away.
You guys are asking the wrong question. The correct question is HOW did Israel blow up the target in Syria?
The F-16 dominates everything else on earth.
And the F-22 wipes the floor with the F-16. It’s not a matter of air superiority—yes, it out maneuvers the F-16, but that’s not even necessary.
In training exercises, F-22s are able to take out F-16s when outnumbered by a factor of 3 or 4. The F-16s don’t even get to “play”. They basically fly around until the F-22s call to tell them they’ve been blown out of the sky.
Supposedly the F-22 can locate the F-16, “kill” it, and then fly over it making visual contact before the F-16 detects it.
And Barry has canceled the program. Wouldn’t want complete air superiority over future threats, that would warrant another American apology. Better we be on a level playing field, and one step closer to dependency on stagnant Europe.
I agree. In terms of cost effectiveness, the F-16’s pretty hard to beat. I wish we were more willing to sell the Taiwanese superior aircraft. IIRC, we’re only offering to sell the Block +52s. It’s kind of annoying that we’re so reluctant to irk China that we aren’t willing to sell, and that we even restricted their Ching-Kuos (via our companies’ development efforts) to being worse than the F-16 Block 20s.
Absolute beauty ...but definitely not stealthy.
Barry is a bump in the road. He is gone soon and the F-22 will be re-awakened.
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