Skywatcher
Captain
Well, at least the F-16V is somewhat more plausibly affordable for the ROCAF than the F-35B.
Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Gollevainen
- Start date
I follow Taiwanese military enthusiast sites and groups closely. But really, that's only optional for one to compile the following to your comment (no offense, we are supposed to only talk about technicalities here I believe):
The ROCAF's F-16s are rather new. In fact they are of late 1990s or early 2000s standard before the recent major upgrade, and in many aspects quite comparable to block 50/52s. Some less significant upgrades were in fact made.
Land-based AshMs:
Also there's the HF-2, an older model.
SAMs: Taiwan does have Patriots, both PAC-2 and PAC-3 variants, pretty state-of-the-art even among the American arsenal. Some Hawks too (albeit quite old). They also spam Stingers on a lot of platforms.
First time I have heard of them having Patriot batteries. That's what I get from expecting Wikipedia to be up to date. Thx for that info.
The Stinger is mostly useful against helicopters and slow moving aircraft. Not that good against modern jet fighters. You would need something with more range than that. Like a ground launched AMRAAM at least.
With regards to the F-16s, if they are of the late 1990s variety, then they are obsolete. Mainland China has Flanker variants. Even the J-10B allegedly has an AESA radar and IRST.
Taiwan's F-16's need AESA radars, later generation pods, and some kind of HMS with all aspect missiles. The mainland Chinese have that and more numbers. So those are necessary in order to have a viable deterrent.
No problem and happy to help. Land-based AMRAAM sounds nice. I wonder what kind of existing system is possible for them to induct though.
About the jets:
My take is most PLAAF Flankers aren't too advanced either. The Su-27SK/UBK
and J-11 are of limited BVR capabilities. J-11B/BS as well as the J-15 are probably not advanced if you think Taiwanese "special block-20s" are obsolete. The J-16 is the only Chinese Flanker model I have absolute confidence in when it comes to ROCAF F-16s if both sides do not use AEW&C assets. Okay maybe the Su-30MK2s too (not so sure about MKKs).
The J-10B should hava a PESA radar. Newest J-10C has the AESA one but it's not numerous as of yet. The current F-16 upgrade program doesn't seem to fall too late vis-a-vis the PLAAF's J-10s. A significant worry is there are rumors about LM personnel complaining about the level of skill of their Taiwanese counterparts.
About the surface-launched AMRAAM variants.
With regards to Taiwanese skill I am certain that will improve as the upgrade program goes forward. It's not like the Taiwanese don't develop and manufacture complex electronics systems themselves. From the limited contact I have had with Taiwanese sometimes the problem is that the technically adept people aren't that good at speaking or writing English and that sometimes makes others think they don't know what they are doing.
Jura The idiot
General
I think their best option would be to source submarines from South Korea. But I doubt that will be easy. I think sourcing them from Europe will cause a similar problem. The Japanese have highly capable submarines. I just wonder if they are not a bit overkill for Taiwan though. It is not like they need long range submarines. They would be better served by higher numbers of smaller submarines.
antiterror13
Brigadier
of course, why wouldn't they ? but what the Chinese can do ?
but Taiwan would just wasting time and money, honestly ... really not much Taiwan can do .. reunification is the only way to go .. the longer it goes the less bargaining power Taiwan have ... better now while still have some bargaining power left Taiwan GDP is around $600B while China is over $12T ... or China is 20x bigger economically ... with 7% economy growth, basically every year China's growth is about 1.5x the size of TAiwan economy