Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Gollevainen
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The_Zergling
Junior Member
100 pilots for the entire Air Force? That somehow seems very unlikely, to have more planes than pilots. Was that article originally written in English?
Aero_Wing_32
Junior Member
Terrible official News... it means more than a simple refusal!
U.S. declines to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan
By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters) - The U.S. government has declined to make a long-awaited sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan for fear of upsetting China, Taiwan's parliament speaker said on Tuesday.
The White House blocked the $4.9 billion deal for 66 advanced F-16s last year and there was little hope of it being revived this year, said Wang Jin-pyng.
"The U.S. doesn't want to give them to us," Wang told Reuters in an interview.
"They wouldn't name a price. It's mainly because mainland China would oppose the sale."
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island.
Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary, and opposes all U.S. arms sales to the island. Washington recognizes China diplomatically and is seeking to improve relations with the Asian economic powerhouse.
Although China-Taiwan ties have improved since President Ma Ying-jeou took office on the island last year, deep military distrust lingers between the two sides.
Taiwan first asked to buy new F-16s in 2007 after approving substantial funding for the aircraft. Wang said Taiwan's current fleet is 16 years old, Wang said.
The U.S. Pacific Command said in July that U.S. policymakers saw no pressing need to sell advanced arms to Taiwan.
What are now the other ways?? How can the ROCAF upgrade its fleet? Except with the french Rafales or french Mirages 2000-9, it s simple : NOTHING.
U.S. declines to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan
By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters) - The U.S. government has declined to make a long-awaited sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan for fear of upsetting China, Taiwan's parliament speaker said on Tuesday.
The White House blocked the $4.9 billion deal for 66 advanced F-16s last year and there was little hope of it being revived this year, said Wang Jin-pyng.
"The U.S. doesn't want to give them to us," Wang told Reuters in an interview.
"They wouldn't name a price. It's mainly because mainland China would oppose the sale."
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island.
Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary, and opposes all U.S. arms sales to the island. Washington recognizes China diplomatically and is seeking to improve relations with the Asian economic powerhouse.
Although China-Taiwan ties have improved since President Ma Ying-jeou took office on the island last year, deep military distrust lingers between the two sides.
Taiwan first asked to buy new F-16s in 2007 after approving substantial funding for the aircraft. Wang said Taiwan's current fleet is 16 years old, Wang said.
The U.S. Pacific Command said in July that U.S. policymakers saw no pressing need to sell advanced arms to Taiwan.
What are now the other ways?? How can the ROCAF upgrade its fleet? Except with the french Rafales or french Mirages 2000-9, it s simple : NOTHING.
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Mr T
Senior Member
Upgrade the whole IDF fleet, probably. If the US refuses to sell anymore fighters it will just have to look at another domestic project, as expensive as it will be - or cough up enough cash to tempt the French.
Semi-Lobster
Junior Member
Ouch! I guess cutting short the IDF's production all those years ago doesn't seem like a smart idea now! Right now (this very minute) this is not a terribly pressing issue given the utter lack of pilots for the ROCAF but with the end of conscription leading to higher wages and people looking for stable careers in rough economic times there will be more applicants but without new aircraft, especially ones to replace the F-5Es which are approaching their retirement age this puts Taiwan in a very difficult position. Restarting production of new IDF airframes are out of the question given AIDCs current state and with such short notice, developing a whole new aircraft would be extremely costly and time consuming, time is something not really on Taiwan's side in this case. Taiwan needs to start looking for outside sources for aircraft, its best, most politically sensitive bet is probably the UAE who will be retiring their mix of older upgraded Mirage 2000-9s and newer built Mirage 2000-9s fairly soon in favour of Rafales. Also earlier France had offered the liscence for the Mirage 2000 to India (which they refused), perhaps the same could be offered to Taiwan?
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Semi-Lobster
Junior Member
This is indeed good news for AIDC and confirms the idea that Taiwan can only really rely on itself for defence given its political situation. But in the short term though this is very damaging since it seems the entire future of the ROCAF sometimes was based on aquiring more F-16s, upgrades can only go so far, you can upgrade all the Ching-kuos in the ROCAF fleet but that still only leaves you with 0 more aircraft than you had before. In addition to upgrades the most pressing concern is the replacement of the F-5E/F which is still used by 3 entire squadrons. In my opinion, AIDC is not ready to produce more Ching-kuos right away, too many people have left the company since then for such an abrupt restart in production to happen any time soon.
I agree with the general tone so far though in the discussion, out of all the aircraft producing countries, only France would be willing to draw the ire of China to supply Taiwan with fighter aircraft and the aircraft in question MUST be the Rafale because it is the only aircraft in production by Dassault anymore as all construction on the Mirage 2000 has ceased and the only supply of Mirage 2000s are second hand from existing air forces. The Rafale though will have to be modified to meet ROCAF requirements though, I have read the existing Snecma M88 engine has issues with tropical climates.
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The_Zergling
Junior Member
Putting aside price, I would be happy to see Rafales in the ROCAF - definite upgrade from F-16s. That said, investing in a major upgrade for the IDF would also be a good temporary solution, as far as the domestic economy is concerned.
This whole situation does go to show how the "status quo" is slowly being unraveled - people protested former President Chen's actions regarding Taiwan Independence fiercely, and in a sense that was legitimate, as far as "not changing the status quo" was concerned. Yet tilting the military balance significantly towards China is just as significant a change, but there's far less outrage.
I see signs that the US may be willing to sacrifice Taiwan for business interests, something that could possibly be observed by the willingness of the current administration to choose someone like Freeman for a post, who believed that TI was a ridiculous idea.
The military situation is interesting in that this strong affect on balance will certainly influence the likelihood of a shooting war...
This whole situation does go to show how the "status quo" is slowly being unraveled - people protested former President Chen's actions regarding Taiwan Independence fiercely, and in a sense that was legitimate, as far as "not changing the status quo" was concerned. Yet tilting the military balance significantly towards China is just as significant a change, but there's far less outrage.
I see signs that the US may be willing to sacrifice Taiwan for business interests, something that could possibly be observed by the willingness of the current administration to choose someone like Freeman for a post, who believed that TI was a ridiculous idea.
The military situation is interesting in that this strong affect on balance will certainly influence the likelihood of a shooting war...