Just curious how many missile can china fire at taiwan at once in the event of cross-strait conflict? i know they have about 1600+ point it, but how many can be fire it simultaneous and continuously for how long. also how many missile defense system does taiwan has, and its effectiveness against short range missiles
taiwan missile defense and mainland missile
- Thread starter s002wjh
- Start date
Geographer
Junior Member
Good question, I have wondered the same thing. Better to fire them all at once to use the element of surprise and catch any aircraft and top leaders out of bunkers. A mass of missiles would also overwhelm any missile defenses. But China would want to keep ~20 percent in reserve to hit any targets that weren't destroyed in the first wave.
vesicles
Colonel
When you have 1600+ missiles pointing at you, no missile defense system is effective.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Forget about ballistic missiles, many of China's top end MLRS have ranges in excess of 200km, some maybe double that. So the likes of the WS1B, WS2, PHL03 and SY400 can all reach Taiwan from the mainland, and you have more systems like the BP12A in development.
And that is not counting the possibility that the PLA would use specialized reinforced cargo ships and park shorter ranged MLRS and SPGs on the middle of the strait to bombard targets on Taiwan.
China does not even have to waste any of it's ballistic missiles to take out Taiwan's missile defense. Just loose off a swarm of MLRS first. Cruise and ballistic missiles can be saved for targets outside of the range of MLRS, but you won't need to use anywhere as many of them if the bulk of the opening volley is made up on MLRS, which would actually be better than ballistic missiles for saturation bombing of large scale targets like airfields.
Taiwan can either use up all their ABM missiles intercepting MLRS that cost a fraction of the SM3, or sit and watch many of it's air fields and air force reduced to ruin.
It is amusing that the media is so fixated on ballistic missile numbers, when in fact, it is the introduction of cruise missiles and 200km+ MLRS that have made the biggest impact on Taiwan's BMD efforts.
If we factor in other measures the mainland is almost certain to employ, like jamming, sabotage and attacks launched by intelligence agents and/or special forces, widespread use of UAVs and UCAVs as well as Wild Weasels and it just become a tactical and strategic nightmare for Taiwan.
While Taiwan has an impressive air force and air defenses on paper, in reality, it's lack of strategic depth means that all of it's assets are under threat from China's alpha strike, and China has the firepower to deliver a devastating blow with the first attack, and there are not enough BMD missiles and systems in the world to effectively defend against such an attack.
And that is not counting the possibility that the PLA would use specialized reinforced cargo ships and park shorter ranged MLRS and SPGs on the middle of the strait to bombard targets on Taiwan.
China does not even have to waste any of it's ballistic missiles to take out Taiwan's missile defense. Just loose off a swarm of MLRS first. Cruise and ballistic missiles can be saved for targets outside of the range of MLRS, but you won't need to use anywhere as many of them if the bulk of the opening volley is made up on MLRS, which would actually be better than ballistic missiles for saturation bombing of large scale targets like airfields.
Taiwan can either use up all their ABM missiles intercepting MLRS that cost a fraction of the SM3, or sit and watch many of it's air fields and air force reduced to ruin.
It is amusing that the media is so fixated on ballistic missile numbers, when in fact, it is the introduction of cruise missiles and 200km+ MLRS that have made the biggest impact on Taiwan's BMD efforts.
If we factor in other measures the mainland is almost certain to employ, like jamming, sabotage and attacks launched by intelligence agents and/or special forces, widespread use of UAVs and UCAVs as well as Wild Weasels and it just become a tactical and strategic nightmare for Taiwan.
While Taiwan has an impressive air force and air defenses on paper, in reality, it's lack of strategic depth means that all of it's assets are under threat from China's alpha strike, and China has the firepower to deliver a devastating blow with the first attack, and there are not enough BMD missiles and systems in the world to effectively defend against such an attack.
try to figure out how many PRC can fire those missile at once. 100, 150??