Regardless of the tight political limitations on arms sale to Taiwan, international defense firms began slugging it out yesterday at a defense and aerospace show in Taipei as they attempted to impress local military officials with the lethality of their hardware.
As Taiwan has stated its goal of looking to expand its attack helicopter units, two US defense firms specializing in these weapons platforms have put on a strong showing for the military procurement officers that were trawling the Taipei Aerospace Technology Exhibition that started yesterday.
Two of the main combatants are Bell Helicopter Textron which makes the AH-1W SuperCobra and Boeing Co, which makes the AH-64D Apache Longbow, both of which are eager to provide Taiwan with the around 70 new attack helicopters Taiwan's army is seeking.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Even though the Apache was one of the items requested by Taiwan but denied by the US in April when it announced its annual weapons package, Boeing executives maintain that it is a key platform for the nation's defense.
The Apache can provide the "farthest-out self defense of [Taiwan's] sovereign territory with the least risk to the crew and the highest probability of the fastest destruction of the enemy," said a Boeing executive.
With the Apache's distinctive Fire Control Radar, which can identify up to 128 targets simultaneously and destroy them from up to 8km away with air-to-ground missiles, it is the platform most suited to aiding in the repulsion of an invasion force before it makes landfall, said the executive.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The ability of a weapons platform to destroy an enemy force in the strait is in line with President Chen Shui-bian's (
"Taiwan needs to provide their army with the best equipment that's available and that's Apache Longbow," said the executive.
Despite Taiwan's obvious preference for the Apaches, executives from Bell, which has already sold Taiwan's army 63 SuperCobra AH-1Ws, say their latest aircraft is more suited to Taiwan and that attempting to maintain two completely different attack helicopters would be costly and difficult.
"Logistics, including the training of personnel, for two completely different weapons systems is much more burdensome than one system. And that is really what brought the US Marine Corps on to the AH-1 program," said a Bell executive.
Instead of the Apaches, Bell executives say that the AH-1Z, the latest generation of its SuperCobra -- or a program to upgrade the current AH-1Ws with the latest technology including the more advanced Target Sight System for clearly identifying multiple targets -- is the logical choice.
The US Marine Corps decided against the Apaches because they required twice as many people to maintain and were not built to withstand corrosive forces of long-term exposure to salt-water environments as demanded by the elite unit, according to a retired senior Marine officer.
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