Posted on 08/06/2022 1:07:58 PM PDT by libh8er
I have thought of the three gorges dam possibility as well. Taiwan could probably make a tactical nuke and add some cobalt 60 and it would pop the dam and flood everything downstream with radioactivity that would make uninhabitable for a hundred years.
I think the idea of hitting TGD is to deter the CCP from invading Taiwan in the first place. And Taiwan is capable of it without the US, so it is like a Mutual Assured Destruction scenario.
However, like any doomsday weapon you would have to NOT keep it a secret in order to deter.
“Only 4? They should have at least 100”
Could be disinformation.
“ Their land-based stuff can hit pretty much anything made by man”
What makes you so sure ? They can’t even predict where their deorbited satellite will crash or make it descend in a controlled manner.
Once upon a time the Russians used to be an invincible superpower until they invaded a little country supplied with western weapons. Then they faced humiliation. Everything we know about Chinese capabilities is through propaganda videos and intelligence sources. We have never seen anything in actual combat.
That fleet will last nanoseconds in all out combat. Wow!
Yes. For some reason we haven't seen China's nuclear missiles used in actual combat. What are they hiding?
Seriously: war is the only true test of a country's warfighting capability. The cost of testing a peer enemy in the crucible of actual war is very high.
So we use models, wargames, exercises to establish what facts we can, relatively cheaply. We watch proxy wars very carefully. And when proxy wars break out (that's about the most neutral way I can put it) we feed weapon systems into them.
Proxy wars are serious conflicts with deadly stakes, but at a distance. We don't get shelled, Donekst does.
Proxy wars are also laboratories of war: where we can test an opponent while the costs and risks are carried by someone else.
For instance we have been able to test Russia's warfighting capability at a safe remove: using Ukraine as the proxy.
Russia (it turns out) has a build strategy based on aerial denial, massive application of artillery and old-school industrial warfare. Their conventional global reach is minimal. No-one is impressed by their surface navy. But their ability to wage large-scale land war on their own border, and to stare NATO down while doing it - that is beyond doubt.
We have also been able to test Russia's economic resilience with sanctions and confiscation. Europe was the proxy in this case, and ... yikes. It's going to be a cold winter for them.
I don't know where you got your information, but according to F-16.net:
"The Republic of China Air Force operates a total of 150 F-16A/B block 20 aircraft, which are essentially identical to MLU aircraft. Taiwan is planning to acquire 66 F-16C/D block 70 aircraft in the near future, mainly to counter the perceived threat from mainland China."
The F-16V is a program to upgrade the F-16A/B block 20 aircraft to F-16C/D block 70 avionics.
Taiwan Has Declared Its Upgraded F-16V Fighter Jets Fully Operational
According to the article above:
"Originally, the ROCAF expected to receive 144 F-16Vs, which are conversions of its existing F-16A/B jets, but this number has since been reduced to 141 through attrition in its existing Viper fleet...
...Work to retrofit the whole fleet is due for completion by the end of 2023."
IMHO, this upgrade is a significant boost in Taiwan's defense capability. My only question is how many "Harpoons" and "Aim-120s" will be sold to Taiwan?
https://www.militaryfactory.com/modern-airpower/aircraft-republic-of-china-air-force-taiwan.php
and didn't cross check.
I used to hammer my students for doing just that. Complacency on my part.
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