Military experts said yesterday that Taiwan should swiftly build up its P3C maritime-patrol aircraft force to be used in conjunction with those of the US and Japan, after the two countries declared yesterday that Taiwan was a common security issue.
Liao Holmes Liao (
The US has approved the sale of 12 P3C aircraft to Taiwan, but the arms deal including the aircraft as well as three PAC-3 missile batteries and eight diesel power submarines has been delayed in the legislature.
Lee said if the legislature passed the NT$610.8 billion bill this year, the US would deliver the first P3C to Taipei in 2008, the next four in 2009, four in 2010 and the last four in 2011.
Liao said the major objective of the new US-Japanese declaration on the Taiwan Strait was to enhance their anti-submarine warfare capabilities in East Asia, and in practice this will mean strengthening their P3C activities in the area.
Liao said while the US had 80 P3Cs stationed in Japan, Japan also owned over 120 P3Cs. Their P3C force have intensively patrolled the waters of East Asia and exchanged intelligence.
"They not only have been grasping what is happening under the waters of East Asia, but have established the strongest military-cooperation model in the world after the Cold War," Liao said.
He said while the US and Japan were adjusting their strategy to pay more attention to the Taiwan Strait and to a more aggressive Chinese navy, Taiwan should build its P3C force as quickly as possible, to prepare for a connection with those of the US and Japan.
However, Liao said he would not support the purchase of eight diesel subs from the US because the prices were too high. Instead, a strong P3C force would be a cheap and efficient way to counter Chinese submarines and a possible blockade of Taiwan.
However, Liao said it is a pity that, although the government has planned to buy 12 P3Cs, the force would be efficient only under the command of a land-based anti-submarine warfare command center, the construction of which the government has yet to propose. "It is like having a computer without a screen," Liao said.
In addition, both Liao and Lee urged the acquisition of better 4CISR (communications, command and electronics systems) units from the US.
"Although the government has been in the process of obtaining 12 P3Cs, the kind of 4CISR system used on the P3Cs is more important," Lee said.
Liao said the Chinese navy has become more active and aggressive in recent years. As the world's No.2 navy force, Japan felt annoyed and humiliated when a Chinese nuclear submarine made an incursion into its waters near Okinawa last November.
Also, as one of the major sea-lanes from Japan and Korea in Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia, the Taiwan Strait is of strategic importance to trade in the region.
As a result, Japan agreed to move from strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity.
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
A former television news host and six military personnel — active and retired — have been indicted on espionage charges, Kaohsiung prosecutors said yesterday. Lin Chen-you (林宸佑), a former CTi News host and YouTuber, last year allegedly made videos at the direction of a Chinese agent criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s recall campaign, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office told a news conference in Kaohsiung. He allegedly received 4,325 tether coins for the videos from an unidentified person surnamed Huang (黃), believed to be an agent of a hostile foreign power, they said. Lin, also known as Ma Te (馬德), has a show named
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’: Any delay in the passage of the remaining funds would weaken Taiwan’s security and play into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, the AIT said While welcoming the Legislative Yuan’s approval of a supplementary defense budget, the US Department of State said that further delays to Taiwan military spending are a “concession” to China. The remarks came after the legislature on Friday passed the budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of military equipment from the US, with total spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.82 billion). One package allocates NT$300 billion for arms sales approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, while the other sets aside NT$480 billion for an arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The
RSS