The US is to help Taiwan obtain NATO’s Link-22 secure data link system, a Ministry of National Defense official said on Thursday.
Lee Shih-chiang (李世強), head of the ministry’s Department of Strategic Planning, made the statement at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs nd National Defense Committee following a local media report that the military is seeking to acquire the NATO system.
Link-22 is a secure digital radio system that is primarily used by military forces as a tactical data link. It is able to provide beyond line-of-sight communications that interconnects air, surface, subsurface and ground-based tactical data systems, while also facilitating the exchange of tactical data among the military units of participating nations.
Photo courtesy of the NATO Improved Link Eleven Project Management Office
Lee was also asked whether NATO’s secure system would be interoperable with the tactical data systems used by Taiwan’s military.
Lee said there were no problems with its own data link systems, but Link-22 enables a direct data link with the US military.
Sources have said that Taiwan is seeking to upgrade its existing system to Link-22, aiming to integrate the command and control systems, missiles and platforms developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology.
Chieh Chung (揭仲), an associate research fellow with the National Policy Foundation in Taipei, said that Taiwan’s data link system is based on Link-16.
Link-22, an upgraded version, boasts greater anti-jamming capabilities and improves command efficiency, while providing faster communications transmissions, Chieh added.
The NATO system can complement and interoperate easily with Link-16, Chieh said.
In the event of an attack, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army would definitely attempt to jam Taiwan’s communications systems through electronic warfare and Link-22 could help prevent that, he said.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that NATO’s Link-22 was designed to improve the performance of Link-11, as it works on high frequency and ultra-high-frequency bands that can operate long distances without the need for a satellite.
Link-22 features an automatic grouping function that can fully map out the positions of enemy and friendly forces via a common operational picture, Su said.
The system’s long-distance transmission capability would greatly improve Taiwan’s combat effectiveness, while strengthening strategic, operational and tactical applications, he added.
Politically, if the US agrees to help Taiwan upgrade to the Link-22 system, that would mean NATO members have agreed to it, Chieh said.
Sources familiar with the matter said that China’s XS-3 and DTS-03 data link systems are superior to Taiwan’s Link-16.
The US assisting Taiwan in upgrading to Link-22 would be of great benefit to national defense and future military cooperation, the sources said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS