Posted on 08/18/2017 11:14:37 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Taiwan is preparing to draft a request for price and availability for F-35 aircraft to replace its ageing Dassault Mirage-2000 fighters, now numbering 56 from the original 60 procured during the 1990s.
Sources at the biennial Taipei Aerospace and Defence Technology Exhibition (TADTE), held from 17-19 August, indicate Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-wen, was buoyed by her congratulatory phone call to US President Donald Trump in December which may have given her administration a false sense of hope for continued US arms sales.
Proponents of the Lockheed Martin F-35 have even created a military-style patch with the Taiwan flag on it (pictured).
Taiwan’s air force has indicated it wants to procure the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant.
The requirement for STOVL comes from the assumption that China would put Taiwan’s airbases and runways out of action with its short-range ballistic missile arsenal, land-attack cruise missiles and air-launched precision munitions in any conflict.
A former US intelligence officer said that there are growing concerns inside the Pentagon that Taiwan cannot be trusted with sophisticated US technology due to the high rate of espionage cases involving China.
Additionally, out of fears of angering Beijing, the US refused to release F-16C/D Block 50/52 fighters to Taiwan in its bid to replace the 144 F-16A/B Block 20 aircraft procured during the 1990s.
Instead, the US released a mid-life upgrade programme that included Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR).
Taiwan defence industry sources at TADTE indicated that Taiwan will have to build its own fighter aircraft to replace the Mirage but will need a US partner to design and develop the aircraft.
At present, the aircraft is only referred to as the Advanced Indigenous Defence Fighter (AIDF). State-run Aerospace Industries Development Corporation (AIDC) built the original Indigenous Defence Fighter (IDF) in the 1990s and has just completed a mid-life upgrade for the aircraft.
The AIDF would have a stealthy profile and advanced avionics, but it would have to develop its own munitions, said a former Taiwan air force officer.
‘That should not be a problem, since many of the munitions already on the original IDF can be transferred and upgraded,’ he said.
The state-run National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) has produced a wide range of missiles and munitions for the IDF, including anti-radiation, air defence and precision ground strike.
Ping.
The sale of F-35 to Taiwan will drive the Chinese bat-sh!t crazy!
And it’s the perfect way to handle them.
F-35’s permanently based within 100 miles of multiple military assets in the South China Sea.
AND, to top it off we’ll be shipping them to South Korea and Japan too.
They would sure go nuts and then do everything the could to get a copy over to the mainland.
Given the world political picture, I don’t see this happening. It might be a US bargaining chip, though. Trump must convince the Chinese to help with North Korea and back off of their land claims regarding the confrontation with India. There are also trade disputes to negotiate.
Really, if I was running Taiwan, I’d try leapfrogging existing and planned technology by going heavily into drones. A partnership with Israel, the world’s largest producer of high tech drones, would be much more cost effective than a mere handful of ultra expensive, manned fighter planes.
Do we still sell the Tigershark? LOL
Not sure if this is a good move. China has been pressuring Taiwan for many years and they still consider the island of Taiwan to be “on their turf.” Right now, Taiwan is not in need of progressing its military as they are not in conflict. And they cannot start to compete with China militarily.
So providing them with just enough rope to hang themselves, may not be the answer. And China will not take too well to our assistance in this and may further their help to North Korea creating another pain in the veranda that will retard our abilities to straighten up our problems here at home.
rwood
Sounds like a good North Korea/China bargaining chip. All other issues in east Asia pale in comparison to stopping a nutjob from nuking a bunch of our cities.
The ROC developed their own fighter when the F-20 deal fell through.
Military strength is a necessity for peace and the countries like Taiwan threatened by China need to maintain their own deterrence against invasion. On the other hand by proposing more arms for a “breakaway” province we gain more bargaining chips to use with China on issues like North Korea.
They only made three.
They crashed two and the third is still on display somewhere.
Really, though. The F-20 was built as an export competitor for the F-16, but nobody wanted a US fighter that wasn’t flown by the US.
We’re still making and exporting F-16s that are more advanced than the ones the USAF is flying, though.
Wait?
You’re only supposed to progress your military when you’re IN conflict?
its reasonable to assume that anything that the US sells to Taiwan will be replicated in short order by the PLA.
“You’re only supposed to progress your military when you’re IN conflict?”
Unless you have the firepower to defend yourself, it might be wiser to try to get around a battle rather than incite one by purchasing aircraft in numbers that will not make a dent if China decides to come. And purchasing these aircraft when China is already pushing the issue, is not going to make them happy. So if Taiwan couldn’t defend themselves before, and what they are buying won’t get it done either, they should try a different tack. But try to bluff them out with a useless purchase of not enough power, is not the tack.
rwood
Taiwan is outnumbered and can’t compete military wise with China. Taiwan doesn’t have a possible way to stop China is they come. And like I said in another post, they don’t have a deterrent now and the purchase of a few f-35 aircraft is not going to have any effect.
In 1945, following the end of World War II, the Republic of China (ROC), led by the Kuomintang (KMT), took control of Taiwan. In 1949, after losing control of mainland China in the Chinese Civil War, the ROC government under the KMT withdrew to Taiwan and Chiang Kai-shek declared martial law.
In many ways, the concern over Taiwan is well-placed. China covets the island far more than any other piece of real estate, including the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. For CCP leaders and many ordinary Chinese, Taiwan is one of the vast remaining vestiges of the country’s century of humiliation. Acquiring Taiwan would also significantly enhance the PLA’s ability to project power outwardly. Despite improvements in cross-Strait relations in recent years, China has refused to rule out the possibility of invasion.
So I still feel you wake the giant by the purchase of the aircraft.
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