Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

1) So apparently the sale has cleared the whole State Dept. veto thing.

2) Taiwan is now getting 15 P-3Cs; three for spares only. (although maybe......they could be refurbished? Never mind.)

3) I also thought it was 100 SM-2s, now it is apparently 144.

4) Hopefully this means that every single barrier is finally cleared away; Taiwan's LY isn't an issue anymore and this will move to Congress (which usually rubber stamps Taiwan arms sales.)

When the P-8's come on line in about 4-5 years there will be even more P-3's avaliable for sale...Great news for some Pacific rim nations.

"It said the sale of 12 excess P-3C aircraft with engines and other equipment and three non-operational aircraft to be used for spares would cost 1.96 billion dollars if all options were exercised."

"Excess"? Are these used?

I'm concerned about the service life of used aircraft. Older planes used for spare parts (cannibalization) is OK, but for $2 billion, you'd think that they can afford new planes.

"Excess"? Are these used?

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Yes, they are old secondhand planes. They will be refurbished.

I'm concerned about the service life of used aircraft.

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Service life isn't much of a problem. These P-3Cs are only meant to last Taiwan 15-20 years anyway, until the year 2025 or 2030. By then, Taiwan would supposedly be able to purchase the new P-8 Poseidon MMA patrol aircraft.

For $2 billion, you'd think that they can afford new planes.

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The price is reasonable (also, the P-3 isn't in production anymore, so new planes are not an option.) Taiwan did consider having the Lockheed line re-opened, but that would have made it exorbitantly costly - supposedly it would have cost a total of $4.3 billion for twelve planes, rather than the $2 billion today.

What about Tawian's LACM program, designed to hit Shanghai? Good move, or bad move?

granite said:

What about Tawian's LACM program, designed to hit Shanghai? Good move, or bad move?

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Well it's not designed to hit Shanghai. It's designed to hit military targets and assets that would play a key role in any attack/military operation against Taiwan.

The project's success is impossible to measure at the moment. It could be an "ace-in-the-hole" or a waste of money - only time will tell.

FuManChu said:

The project's success is impossible to measure at the moment. It could be an "ace-in-the-hole" or a waste of money - only time will tell.

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What kind of indicators would one look to for measuring the success or failure of such a program?

Such a strike can only harrass the chinese, it can't do serious or permanent damage. Cruise missile strikes (or guided ballistic missile strikes) are usually done as first steps into a campaign - to temporarely shock the enemy so further attacks can take true advantage of that initial shock. US forces have used that tactic time and time again in their campaigns. Here, however, i seriously doubt it would pay off for the taiwanese to send their planes over china, right after the cruise missile strikes. Modern SAM networks are too powerful. Even the US went the VERY expensive route of stealthy planes to deal with such defences, because they deemed the then-current planes too vulnerable (f15s, f16s, etc) But, unless there is a follow up by attack planes - cruise missile strikes themselves will do little true damage. They will strike only fixed targets, and damage from those strikes will be repaired.

Totoro said:

They will strike only fixed targets, and damage from those strikes will be repaired.

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I don't think the Taiwanese would intend to use their missiles to deal permanent damage. They want to disrupt a Chinese invasion to buy time to mobilise their own defences and give time for the Americans to respond.

that is if the chinese will attack or provoked.........