SG Talk

President Tsai Ing-wen lauded Taiwan's military cooperation with Washington yesterday as she commissioned the first combat wing of F-16 fighters upgraded with US help to bolster the island's defences amid rising tensions between Taipei and Beijing.

Frequent Chinese and US military exercises in the region have raised fears of conflict touched off by a crisis over democratically -ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.

Ms Tsai told a ceremony at an air base in the southern Taiwanese city of Chiaye, to unveil the first squadron of its most advanced F-16s, and the F-16V, that the project showed the firm commitment of the Taiwan-US partnership.

"I believe that as long as we adhere to the values of democracy and freedom, there will be more like-minded countries standing on the same front with us," she said, speaking on the same stage as the top US diplomat in Taiwan, Ms Sandra Oudkirk.

The NT$110 billion (S$5.4 billion) F-16 upgrade is led by manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp and Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp, and is the latest example of military cooperation between Washington and Taipei.

Taiwan has been converting 141 F-16A/B jets into F-16V type, 64 of which have already been upgraded, and has additionally ordered 66 new F-16Vs, which have new avionics, weapons and radar systems tobetter face down the Chinese air force, including its J-20 stealth fighter. REUTERS

An article found in today's The New Paper

US keep pushing them to buy this, buy that
No money, never mind, US will lend them.
Why is this Govn so obsessed?

Once red line crossed, taiwan no more, asia americas kangoroos euro in turmoil.

Assmerica is trying to make Taiwan poor!

Ms Vege Sai is very obedient in helping Assmerica in doing that!

Modern air force warfare is not about 1 fighter vs 1 fighter, but the ability to fully integrate all aspects of information into a digital battlefield. Even 30 years ago back in 1991 during the first Gulf War, this was already very apparent.

In theory, Iraq's MIG29 were in the same generation as the American F15/16/18s. However, the Americans with full AEW&C coverage, superior EW and space assets backed by smart bombs and long range precision strike missiles were able to completely decimate the Iraqi air force and Republican Guards. The entire military action took less than 100 hours for Sadam Hussein to capitulate.

The military gap between Taiwan and China in 2021 now is even bigger than what the Iraqis faced with the Americans 30 years ago. Piecemeal upgrades of military equipment isn't going to make any difference when facing any of the big three military powers (US/CN/RU).

For e.g. just a minor fact that I seldom see mentioned in Taiwanese media, the entire Taiwan island is within the range of China's SAM systems from the land based S-400 and HQ9B to the ship based VLS HHQ9. Combined with space assets, AEW&C and probably UAV + Ground based ELINT monitoring, there is no feasible way for any non-stealth aircraft to take off from Taiwan without being immediately shot down during war. F-16A or F-16V isn't going to make any difference.

F16 is out of date, should buy F35