Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Gollevainen
- Start date
What capabilities they have is very outdated. U.S. military advisors expressly asked them to improve it in the past but it fell on deaf ears because it isn't as flashy as Apaches, F-16Vs, or M1s.
Took them long enough. Wasn't this signed when Obama was still POTUS?
I think it was the best deal in terms of cost effectiveness they could have made.
But this results in an aircraft which is roughly comparable with J-10B at best.
Perhaps not even that since it seems to lack IRST.
I think it was the best deal in terms of cost effectiveness they could have made.
But this results in an aircraft which is roughly comparable with J-10B at best.
Perhaps not even that since it seems to lack IRST.
Yes, you can, but as an emergency. You can drop anything from pylons - up to and including, say, sensor pods.
As with many things - you (as a pilot) better not to in peacetime. Because you guess who's going to pay for the replacement.
As for rocket pods - for some older rocket pods, it is even their intended way of operation (FFARs had single-use pods, for example).
Well, they intend to get ~220 of them overall. That's a pretty big force by modern standards.
As for a "game-changer" - this word is horrifically over abused. Very few things can be "game changers" when your main adversary is a superpower. F-16V, with all its useful tricks and technological sophistication, isn't one of them.
Their small tragedy is that there is a perfect fighter solution for ROCAF on the market - a far cheaper one, in fact. That's Gripen E/Globaleye pair.
Aaand they absolutely couldn't buy it.
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Taiwan is the US's captive customer - or more precisely client - when it comes to arms sales. Other countries don't want to risk offending PRC to sell them advanced weapons. What arms Taiwan can buy from the US is mostly dictated by the US, and often they are not even requested by Taiwan. Can't think of a more abusive and subservient relationship than that.
F-16V has state of the art AESA radar whereas the J-10B has only PESA and was discontinued in favor of J-10C very quickly. Saying that the F-16V is comparable with J-10B at best is disingenuous. It is hands down once of the most capable medium fighters in the Asia Pacific region.
The F-16V is a decent fighter, but 220 is totally inappropriate for a country the size of Taiwan. In a conflict how many are they going to get airborne? A smaller number of F-35s or a mixture of F-16V & F-35s would have been much better.
I bet when the war happens, most of these don't leave the ground and end up straight in the PLAAFs inventory.
I bet when the war happens, most of these don't leave the ground and end up straight in the PLAAFs inventory.