Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
The article basically says what I've talked about here more than once. Taiwan needs missile defenses. I disagree that ATGMs are waste of money though. In case there is a landfall they would be quite useful weapons as can be seen from the Syrian conflict.
 

Mr T

Senior Member
I disagree that ATGMs are waste of money though. In case there is a landfall they would be quite useful weapons as can be seen from the Syrian conflict.

I agree that anti-tank missiles are important for Taiwan. Unless China was able to establish a total naval blockade and starve Taiwan into submission with no outside interference, it would probably need to land armoured vehicles. Paratroopers and light infantry/marines wouldn't cut it alone, nor would a bombing campaign (one assumes China wouldn't massacre the civilian population by destroying Taiwanese cities). If China established air-superiority, Taiwanese tanks might have a tough time of it, but infantry armed with ATGMs would be a different matter.
 
I guess General Weygand would've loved to have ATGMs in 'hedgehogs' and perhaps even more in holes in between

EDIT plus self-propelled howitzers to engage the column from distance, and MLRSs to pin it down
 
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Gloire_bb

Captain
Registered Member
I agree that anti-tank missiles are important for Taiwan. Unless China was able to establish a total naval blockade and starve Taiwan into submission with no outside interference, it would probably need to land armoured vehicles.
Both ATGMs and direct fire weapons(tanks) are amongst the most deadly weapons against marines. Especially so when they're at their most vulnerable state, tightly packed and largely defenseless in their landing craft and vehicles.
 

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
Guys ... as in the other threads I'll delete from now on each and every post that is OFF-topic or political.

No WW II or post WW II discussion, no where should the PLA land on Taiwan and even more why and how the US should or will react.

Take this as a warning.
 
hope it's appropriate to repost this
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Trade deal with China or not, the US must bolster Taiwan’s defense
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At the G-20 summit this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping may
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U.S. President Donald Trump to halt a planned U.S. arms deal with Taiwan. Xi may even offer a tantalizing (but unreliable) concession on the trade dispute in return for concessions on Taiwan. Accepting such an offer would undermine U.S. national security and the democratic principles Americans support.

Bullies tend to start fights they think they can win, an important consideration when it comes to deterring Beijing from aggression against Taiwan. Unfortunately, due to China’s massive military mobilization and Washington’s past reluctance to provide sufficient arms to Taiwan, the military balance of power in the Taiwan Strait has shifted in Beijing’s direction — making war there more likely. To begin reducing this risk, Washington would be wise to follow through on delivery of the pending
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for Taiwan.

Based on the hope that economic liberalization would lead to political liberalization, Washington facilitated Beijing’s integration into the global economy. American
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for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization epitomized this strategy. Unfortunately, increased wealth
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an inexorable march toward freedom in China. Instead, the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, used its financial windfall to fund a major military expansion, bully its neighbors and attempt to push the U.S. out of the region.

These dynamics have been perhaps most pronounced in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan is prosperous and democratic, which creates an uncomfortable contrast for the CCP and an object of emulation for its subjects on the mainland. As in
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, the people of Taiwan have grown accustomed to their freedoms and are reluctant to give them up.

Impatient — and determined to exert control over the island — Beijing has employed political and military means to isolate and intimidate Taiwan. First, Beijing has pressed countries to
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ties with Taiwan. In 2018 alone, China successfully
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three more countries to sever Taiwanese relations, leaving only
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that recognize the island’s government. Taiwan’s diplomatic isolation makes American support all the more important.

More dangerously, due primarily to its extraordinary
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, Beijing is moving ever closer to an ability to successfully invade the island.

The U.S. Defense Department’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Report
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this month notes that “China has never renounced the use of military force against Taiwan, and continues to develop and deploy advanced military capabilities needed for a potential military campaign.”

Indeed, as demonstrated by an increased number of military exercises near Taiwan, the report warns that the People’s Liberation Army is “
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to unify Taiwan with the mainland by force.”

In the past, Taiwan’s superior technology and geography gave Taiwan a military edge when it came to a potential conflict in the strait. However, as the Pentagon
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, due to China’s military buildup, those advantages are now largely gone.

In fact, as the Defense Intelligence Agency’s 2019 report on
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assessed, “Beijing’s longstanding interest to eventually compel Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland and deter any attempt by Taiwan to declare independence has served as the primary driver for China’s military modernization.”

Simultaneously, based on an overzealous and counterproductive desire in previous administrations to avoid offending Beijing, Washington has often been reluctant to provide Taiwan the arms it needed. Fearful to not provoke the Chinese, the Obama administration rejected Taiwanese requests for 66 new
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— instead only offering modifications for its aging aircraft.

Admittedly, America’s arms sales to Taiwan are relatively modest compared to China’s military buildup. However, the failure to provide Taiwan the required weapons exacerbated the shift toward Beijing in the military balance. As a result, across most combat domains, Beijing has
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both a quantitative and qualitative advantage over Taiwan.

Consequently, there is a risk that Beijing planners and decision-makers might determine they could launch a successful offensive against Taiwan. That perception in Beijing makes aggression in the strait and a war with the United States more likely.

The bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission
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aggression against Taiwan as a top concern, arguing that allowing China to absorb Taiwan by military force would constitute a “crushing blow to America’s credibility and regional position.”

In addition to genuine hard-power concerns, there is also a matter of principle. When an authoritarian power threatens and bullies a democratic people, America is not neutral.

Furthermore, providing Taiwan the means to defend itself is not just consistent with sound policy and good principle — it is the law. The Taiwan Relations Act made clear that the establishment of diplomatic relations with Beijing rested on the expectation that the future of Taiwan would be “determined by peaceful means.” To make this a reality, the law says the U.S. will provide the weapons “necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability.”

Admittedly, successive U.S. administrations have interpreted and implemented this rather vague statute differently. However, what seems clear is that Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against an increasingly belligerent and capable military threat from the mainland is in doubt. That would suggest that the current arms package under consideration is not only permissible and advisable under the law, but essential.

The administration deserves credit for expanding
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in the Taiwan Strait and, at least initially,
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Congress to support new arms sales to Taiwan. Those are good first steps, but they are not enough. In addition to providing these arms without delay and
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the erosion of U.S. military superiority vis-a-vis China, Washington should also provide Taiwan the fighter aircraft and
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it needs to make Beijing think twice before undertaking aggression in the strait.

In its report this month, the Pentagon
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the U.S. commitment to Taiwan’s self-defense, invoking the words of the Taiwan Relations Act.

Those are good words. But in any potential conversation with President Xi this week, President Trump would do well to remember that it will take more than words to deter aggression from the bullies in Beijing.
 
Jun 6, 2019
here comes
Updated 6 hours ago
Exclusive: U.S. pursues sale of over $2 billion in weapons to Taiwan, sources say, angering China
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now
US State Dept. OKs possible $2 billion Abrams tank sale to Taiwan
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The State Department has approved a possible $2 billion Foreign Military Sale of M1A2T
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to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), which represents the interests of Taiwan in the U.S.

Congress was notified July 8 of the sale.

TECRO requested to buy 108 of the tanks as well as 122 M2 Chrysler Mount Machine Guns, 216 M240 machine guns, 14 M88A2 HERCULES vehicles, 16 M1070A1 Heavy Equipment Transporters and associated rounds, and communications equipment as well as other systems like smoke grenade launchers.

General Dynamics Land Systems will build the tanks at Anniston Army Depot, Alabama, and at Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio.

The M88A2 recovery vehicle will be built by BAE Systems in York, Pennsylvania. Oshkosh will build the HETs.

The possible purchase of the tanks in Tawain has been uncertain over the past several years. Taiwan originally planned to purchase 200 tanks but then, due to budgetary concerns, dropped the planned number to 120.

Then in the fall of 2017, Taiwan appeared to walk back on its plan to buy surplus M1 tanks, deciding instead that it would locally upgrade the M60A3 main battle tanks already in service.

In the summer of 2018, Taiwan then announced its intention to buy 108 of the tanks.

China has condemned Taiwan’s move to buy the American tanks among other U.S. weapons systems like fighter jets.
 
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