Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Semi-Lobster

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
kliu0 said:
True that the USA never cared, the point from the rejection is that the US will not supply all arms to Taiwan. It serves as a good wake up call for the Taiwanese government. The government has been too dependent upon the US since they finished the production lines of the IDF. This rejection is just like when the US refused to sell F-16s and F-20s in the 1980s and 1990s.

Factors of Rejection:
- Pro-China Government = Fear of losing vital advanced weaponary to China
- Decreased Military Spending (of GDP) = Taiwan is seen as unwilling to spend more money on military to properly defend themselves
- North Korea = US needs China's help in dealing with North Korea
- Financial Crisis = US needs China to buy more US bonds.
- China = More advanced weapons sales will anger China and can lead to suspension of military relations and others.

Positives of Rejection
- Dependency = Taiwan wakes up from reliance on US
- IDF II = Domestic defence industry gets a boost, if the government chooses to go that way. Economy gets a good boost during tough times. Taiwan also improves it capability to build new fighters, and is also less reliant on US.
- French Arms = Very good and stable option for Taiwan, Taiwan also has alot of French missile stockpiles.

Negatives of Rejection
- No F-16s = Time lag before they get new fighters, either from US (if they sell), France or themselves.
- IDF II = Very costly to design and build a new fighter. Questions as to whether or not foreign companies will help in technology transfers etc.
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Like I said earlier, I'm not sure French arms are a sure thing anymore, although cooperation and co-development seems more likely. The most contentious issue as it was for the original IDF will be the engine most likely and if AIDC were to start development of a new aircraft now it would probably be ready by the time the mainland J-XX would nearly be done. I think the most politically sound and fastest option the ROCAF have is to find a more suitable engine for the F-CK-1 (ehich is still a very viable aircraft design) and create a more radical upgrade to the F-CK-1 platform.
 
Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
Looks like Taiwan hasn't given up on the F-16s yet.

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Taiwan has renewed a drive to buy advanced U.S.-built F-16 fighter aircraft, confronting President Barack Obama with a delicate decision.

Detailing its arms shopping list for the first time since Obama took office, Taipei's de facto embassy in Washington said its current fighter force was inadequate to a potential threat from China across the 110-mile- wide Taiwan Strait.
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TECRO, in its statement to Reuters, made clear Ma's administration was still seeking UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters built by United Technologies Corp's Sikorsky unit and design work on modern diesel-electric submarines.

These two items were cleared for release to Taiwan by Bush as part of a landmark arms offer in April 2001, but left out of the October notification to Congress. The deals were held up for years, largely by partisan hurdles to funding in Taiwan. Funds to start acquiring the work on submarines, Black Hawk helicopters and the F-16 C/Ds now have been approved by the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's parliament, TECRO said.

Wilder said the Bush administration had told Taiwan that it was not denying it any of the weapons approved in 2001, but would leave the decision to Obama.

"We wanted to leave the door open for the next U.S. administration to do its own review in consultation with Taiwan to decide on future arms sales," he said.
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Semi-Lobster

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
Mr T said:
Looks like Taiwan hasn't given up on the F-16s yet.

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It would take some hard lobbying to get the new administration to ok the sale after having denied it the first time around, butthis is a new administration though afteral, I don't think anybody knows how this is going to turn out.
 
Aero_Wing_32

Aero_Wing_32

Junior Member
Mr T said:
Looks like Taiwan hasn't given up on the F-16s yet.

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This underlines the high degree of urgency : Taiwanese airforce is weakening. They do need dozens of aircrafts right now.

With the chinese hundreds of billions lent to the USA during the crisis, I do not think Taiwan will get these F-16s from the americans. :(
 
Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
Semi-Lobster said:
It would take some hard lobbying to get the new administration to ok the sale after having denied it the first time around, butthis is a new administration though afteral, I don't think anybody knows how this is going to turn out.
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Read the original article more carefully. Wang said the White House blocked it last year and he didn't think it was likely to get the current administration to act differently. He wasn't saying Obama has vetoed it - I don't think he's taken an initial decision yet, let alone a final one.
 
Semi-Lobster

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
Mr T said:
Read the original article more carefully. Wang said the White House blocked it last year and he didn't think it was likely to get the current administration to act differently. He wasn't saying Obama has vetoed it - I don't think he's taken an initial decision yet, let alone a final one.
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I guess thats what I get for posting as soon as I woke up :p Well I guess this is why its back in the news with the new administration. It still seems like an uphill battle though, if the Bush Jr. Administration had reason to not sell to Taiwan then then so would the new Obama one, even more so for the reasons Aero_Wing_32 stated. The article did say last year as Mr. T said though, surely by now the ROCAF has some sort of contingency plan that does not solely hinge on purchasing American aircraft?
 
Mr T

Mr T

Senior Member
kliu0 said:
Kyodo News Agency said last week that the US was gonna send the UH-60 Order through to congress very soon.
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It said nothing of the sort. In the article, a lobbyist said that a congressional notification would be passed in the Autumn.

Rubert Hammond-Chambers was quoted as saying that the US administration is likely to start reviewing pending arms deals to Taiwan in June.
 
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