F-15 and F-16 perhaps the most logical pairing.
This I do agree but I believe Taiwan (for risk management purposes) wants to have 2 different engine types for their fighter fleet; which is why their new 66 F-16Vs are powered by F110-GE-129 engines. Their older but upgraded 141 F-16A/Bs are powered by F100-PW-220 turbofan engines; so that if there is any problem with any engine type, not all their American made fighters would be affected.
F-15EX is far more costly to buy and operate compared to F-16, and may not be suitable for Taiwan.
Strongly disagree.
Singapore uses that concept, even Indonesia try to look on that. Both of them have smaller Defense budget than Taiwan/ROC. Thus Taiwan certainly have resources to operate both type of Aircraft, if US allow it.
Agreed — what IPCR_quad says is not supported by sound logic or reason. If tiny Singapore can afford 40 F-15SGs, Taiwan’s Air Force, which operates six E- 2Ds as AWACS, and is 3 to 4 times larger (in comparison), can easily afford a larger fleet of 44 to 60 F-15EXs (to replace an existing fighter type). The issue at hand is not affordability, the issue is whether the Americans are willing to sell given the expected reaction from China.
Any American move to sell F-15EXs in 2023 and beyond will allow Taiwan to retire their approximately 60 Dassault Mirage 2000 fighters, via planned obsolescence.
Just like what other members put, I also don't see the need for Taiwan to build 4500+km strategic missiles.
In a pure missile competition (be it short range, medium range or long range), Taiwan will lose. Every missile fired by Taiwan at the PLA will see China replying with 25 or more missiles back (in that exchange ratio, in a sustained basis over 30 to 45 days). Planning for counter value strikes, without a proper strategy to take into account the PLA’s 2nd artillery force is a mistake that idiotic fanboys seem to love — Taiwan has much more to lose in missile exchanges, for a war scenario.
Responding to the most coercive of China’s threats against Japan or Taiwan, is not difficult for the Biden administration. It gets harder if China mobilises less coercive power when threatening Taiwanese or Japanese interests. Keeping in mind that only Japan is eligible for collective defence; and collaborative defence between Japan and Taiwan still needs development. Over time, China has reclaimed land and transformed islands into military facilities that have increased the PLA(N)’s ability to project power in the South China Sea, and the waters around Taiwan’s and Japan’s respective ADIZs. This has raised the costs for the US to defend its treaty allies, like Japan and the Philippines, which undermines its traditional presence in the Indo-Pacific. For Japan and Taiwan, China’s South China Sea facilities pose a potential threat to the freedom of navigation that each relies on for trade.
IMO, not everyone needs to adopt the idiotic Iranian missile centric approach of shooting down civilian airliners in their own air space, when there are better tools available to Taiwan for sea denial, close air support and suitable platforms in the arms market to contest for air superiority over the skies of Taiwan and its ADIZ. Please see
Air Power 101 for New Members and this
IADS and SEAD discussion for a grounding on the concepts.
It's wasting resources, and the same time it's also only aggravating PRC more. I don't think US also willing to support Taiwan, if ROC developed regional range strategic missile forces.
Agreed.
Plus such Taiwanese moves to develop unneeded missile capabilities will unnecessarily and unintentionally worry the JMSDF (whose involvement is not only needed but expected in a defence of Taiwan scenario) — if the PLA are silly enough to conduct an amphibious invasion. Taiwan must not even appear to be a threat to Japan, if they want future Japanese help, should the need arise. And the Taiwanese know how badly their industrial base need American and Japanese help to build Taiwan’s 8 indigenous submarine (IDS). IDS construction started in Nov 2020 with covert Japanese help and its delivery to Taiwan is expected in 2025.
You can’t change the geography and the geo-political reasons why Japan’s very capable submarine fleet and rapid offensive mining capabilities will not allow any amphibious attack by the PLA(N) on Taiwan to succeed.
If US allow Taiwan to have Combo of F-16V and F-15EX, it's already provided formidable deterrence over Taiwan air space and over mainland coastal area near Taiwan straits. This has been talk many times in this forums, that most likely forces PLA will commit for Taiwan invasion will likely post and build up in southern China near Taiwan it self.
Agreed.
For that, what Taiwan/ROC most likely need to counter is what China/PLA can bring in to Theater or near Theater around them.
Cruise missiles alone are not the answer — Taiwan needs to have a strategy to cultivate informal relations with the JMSDF, USN and to de-conflict their ADIZ with Japanese and American aircraft, to slow any invasion attempt to a bloody crawl. That is real deterrence; and not some bullish!t fanboy reasoning.
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