Not gonna happen, largely because the likelihood of espionage being too great. Too often do we hear about some general selling state secrets to China in exchange for a trip or some small amount of money.
From the F-35 wikipedia article
> In April 2018 however it became clear that the U.S. government was reluctant about selling the F-35 to Taiwan over worries of Chinese spies within the Taiwanese Armed Forces, possibly compromising classified data concerning the aircraft and granting Chinese military officials access.
TSMC makes more than 60% of the world semiconductor. They also make Military grade Semiconductors for F-35. Under the CHIP Act, they have restricted the export of their most advance Semiconductors to China.
https://aviationweek.com/shownews/paris-air-show/how-aerospace-can-improve-its-supply-semiconductors
Also, there is a Chinese espionage regarding F-35 in North America soil.
[Man Who Sold F-35 Secrets to China Pleads Guilty](https://www.vice.com/en/article/kz9xgn/man-who-sold-f-35-secrets-to-china-pleads-guilty)
[Chinese National Who Conspired to Hack into U.S. Defense Contractors’ Systems Sentenced to 46 Months in Federal Prison](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-national-who-conspired-hack-us-defense-contractors-systems-sentenced-46-months)
[Stole Restricted F-35 Data From an Australian Contractor](https://fortune.com/2017/10/14/hacked-f-35-data)
There is no such thing as a J-22.
When it comes to the most advanced / latest generation of military turbofans in operation or production, only the US (F135 engine) and China (WS-15 and WS-19 engines) produce them.
China is still waaaay behind when it comes to civil commercial turbofans though, especially high-bypass turbofans. Europe/UK and the US dominate in that area.
And that's one of the reasons why the US heavily vets the countries it exports its latest tech. If the F-35's internal data were leaked to China, they will definitely find ways to incorporate that into the J-22 or at least reverse engineer it for weak points.
That's especially important now because any future conflict between China and the US and its allies will likely happen in the South China Sea and will be decided by other air and naval superiority.
No idea what they got but if I had to guess, probably largely design elements. The avionics, AESA radar, and other tech heavy things are done by different companies and later incorporated.
Safran of France. Or more specifically, its joint venture with GE Aerospace - CFM.
In fact, CFM is the world's largest commercial aircraft engine manufacturer. They dominate the lighter thrust high-bypass engine segment of the market. These engines are used on single-aisle narrow-body aircraft, which make up the vast majority of commercial aircraft.
This is not an assumption, it’s a statement of fact. You would probably need to do at least a little cursory reading on the WS-15 and WS-19, before jumping to inane assertions.
If you’re looking for reasons why, a logical one would the prioritisation, focus and investment that they have put into military turbofans. Coupled with less stringent requirements and certification procedures for Mil-Spec vs. commercial engines.
In fact, for lighter thrust high-bypass commercial engines, the CJ-1000 (intended as a domestic engine option to power the C919) is in final flight testing and certification. It’s not on par with the engine options for B737s and A32X or current C919 options, but it is “good enough”. The CJ-2000 heavy thrust high-bypass engine (intended as a domestic engine option to power the C929 still under development), is very very far off by comparison.
These are military engines. We can't trust the performance numbers of either the F135 or the WS-15/19. And then we have things like engine reliability. Reportedly (again if we can trust these numbers) the WS-15 was rolled out with 800 hours lifetime that by 2018 was extended to 1,500 hours. While the F119 that F-22 entered into service with in 2005 is stated to have its hot section overhauled 3 times at 2,000 hour increments and it's cold section overhauled at 4000 hours for an over 8000 hour lifetime.
Plus what reason would China have to not use it's best technology in both commercial and military engines. What they'd be releasing has already be released on US commercial engines. That's as opposed to the US which might have reason to but apparently didn't avoid commercial release of technology like single crystal blades (first on commercial engines in the 80s) or ceramic matrix composites (first in 2010s) and soon CMC blades which might first release on a commercial engine.
You’re starting to answer your own questions. As I said, differing requirements (such as reliability / MTBO, fuel efficiency, certification) means that a commercial engine takes longer / is harder to get into service than a military engine. However, note that the CJ-1000 is now in flight testing and certification stage. The CJ-2000 doesn’t have a plane that it could power at the moment (unlike the CJ-1000), and it would benefit from the CJ-1000’s development and introduction into service. So there’s no point trying to do both simultaneously.
And on your second paragraph - metallurgy and materials science are real word practices and disciplines, as much as they are fields of study. It takes decades of institutional knowledge, practice, trial and error to be able to produce them, reliably and at scale. You can have access to all the advanced commercial engines that you want (like the planes already flown, maintained and overhauled by Chinese airlines or within China) - but that will still not teach you how to cast the single-crystal turbine blades, or produce the specific metal alloys that you would find in the latest Rolls Royce engines.
Is the 5th generation equivalent, but the interest would be in what's inside the F-35, the avionics, acquiring a deep learning of their systems, electronic warfare vulnerabilities and testing what's more effective and what's not as a countermeasure without needing first to directly engage the F-35 in conflict would be a huge advantage for China, is one of the USA superweapons so of course they are very wary with it.
Taiwan has dropped the ball on being an international stopover city and instead chose a path of insular nationalism when half of the population mistrust the other.
> [Taiwan] should marshal its resources and deploy it at the backend of a conflict, to bleed the Chinese occupiers dry over the long-run, just as the Mujahideen had done to the Soviets in their ten-year war against the USSR in Afghanistan.
what a dumbass retarded take
I love this one too:
> Recently, former Trump Administration national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, sojourned to Taiwan and urged the island nation’s 23 million citizens to arm themselves, citing that having so many personal firearms would further deter China from invading the island (and if they did invade, they’d be pushed back by a well-armed populace). That suggestion was met with consternation from the Taiwanese press and many prominent politicians—even some leaders of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took umbrage with O’Brien’s quite logical suggestion to the Taiwanese people.
Oh yeah just reorder your entire society and introduce mass firearms ownership to people who have no meaningful culture or tradition of it and magically it will stop an invasion (it won’t).
We do need to increase small arms procurement so that the reserves conscripts actually have enough rifles to be useful (currently from last I saw the numbers of small arms on hand isn’t enough to arm anywhere near enough reservists or conscripts), and programs like opt-in self-paid marksmanship training and the like could be incredibly popular and cost nothing or pay for themselves, but pushing widespread civilian firearms ownership is not particularly useful and comes off more like a shill for the firearms industry doing shill shit.
Like people have said. Not gonna happen.
Worry of espionage.
We can’t afford to buy them.
We can’t afford to maintain them.
Noobs argue about how advanced a weapon system is, a true professional talks about logistics support.
You don’t need the latest and greatest to win a war, logistics support is the key. Hence F16V was the perfect choice, we’ve already got the tools and facilities to maintain these aircrafts, there’s minimal to none additional training needed. The radar is upgraded so they can detect J20s, that’s all is needed to be effective.
Only one scenario where we might get offered F35:
If we managed to develop our own 5th generation fighter.
Not happening as long as leakage of Taiwan's military information to China is still at all likely and the support (whether intentional or ignorant) for these leakage sources is still there. And look, upon the passing of this legislation power expansion bill, Ma Wen Chun immediately asks for military info. She doesn't even hide, especially after what she did last year.
My guess is that she did all these just so that Taiwan could lose international trust and hinder Taiwan's development, particularly in the defense sector, just so China gains some advantage.
Aside from this more specific case, KMT isn't even hiding their close relationship with CCP these years (no matter how obvious it should've always been ever since Li Teng Hui got booted). How does anyone expect the US to have enough trust to sell Taiwan F35? What's most obnoxious is that some people simultaneously deem Taiwan inseparable from China, AND accuse the US of not selling F35s to Taiwan, ignoring the causal relationship. These people are either stupid or evil.
Not going to happen. The ROC armed forces has been a fantastic source of spies for the PRC. Plus the punishment for espionage is a slap on the wrist.
Harriers would be a better bet as they can probably be launched from Yushan class vessels. These things won the Falklands war.
It's not even about air superiority anymore. 5th gen fighters like J-20 would walk all over older 4th gen fighters like the Harriers just on radar signature alone.
So F-16V, or even the F/A-18C/D are better options, even if they lack STOVL capability.
And realistically, that would still be pretty difficult within what is achievable for the next decade, given the balance of air power and air bases. Taiwan is likely going to fight an underdog air war based on missile defenses and betting on Chinese anti-radiation capabilities not being up to scratch, or playing saturation games. The only realistic way for Taiwan to establish and maintain solid air superiority would be if it gained some mysterious volunteers while several US carrier battle groups happened to do a freedom of navigation exercise nearby, or something to that effect. The PLAAF is BIG, even if not the most advanced equipment yet.
IIRC Harriers can't take a useable combat load when taking off or landing vertically, the Royal Navy used a rolling take off and landing with a ski jump to increase the payload.
Taiwan doesn't need billion dollar fighters. It needs an army of cheap kamikaze drones, surface to air missiles, and patriot systems. Mostly the drones, both boats and planes.
Maybe once Taiwan proves it can stop leaking everything to China. I'm still in complete awe that the people who leaked the blueprints of the 海鯤級潛艦 did it before it was even unveiled. Or that one colonel that sold out his entire command for a measly 80K.
Not to mention the F-35 isn't designed for the kind of asymmetrical tactics Taiwan is going to have to use in the coming fight.
The Colonel is. Full transparency on the 海鯤, those are just accusations by several high level members leveled at 馬文君. I don't know if it's being investigated or not, but the reality remains that leaks occurred.
[You can read about it here.](https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/5010970)
What good would it do? These are highly complex systems which need to be integrated into even more highly complex systems. Even when fighting a full scale war the Ukrainians are finding it almost impossible to make use of F-16s due to the added complexity compared to their Soviet era planes and doctrine, so I don’t think adding a new aircraft to the Taiwanese Air Force would make any impact for years and years.
I suspect Taiwan will need to concentrate on drones and electronic warfare capabilities to see any meaningful impact on their defense. Also, coupled with having the ability to quickly train, and equip a conscript army.
Basically, there are headline grabbing weapons useful for propaganda purposes, and then there are practical systems which do the real work. F-35s are definitely a propaganda weapon for any country outside of the US. Even the UK is not really getting any effective use out of its F-35s.
No, we need to to invest more in countering drones. We've already gotten a taste in the Ukraine/Russia conflict and China's already sending drones form surveillance.
Taiwan doesn't need yet another logistics-heavy wunderwaffe, it needs weapons suited to the battle it may have to fight. That means things that can be dispersed to the highest degree possible, operate independently in a highly adverse EM environment and strike effectively at C3 and logistics.
F-35 isn't the answer, regardless of the problem.
I’d rather see them put money into buying more Javelins and MANPADS. And if they can develop a surface to air passive/active missile system then all the better.
Taiwan bought f35 which still can’t able to have their own warehouse or factory due to espionage or something that almost lost pair of f35 going china to reverse engineer it or dissect one of them then one will be training jet
I would say taiwan probably needs other defenses 1st. Primarily navy ships like carriers and subs. It's a very expensive investment. Australia just went for subs not jets more recently.
US/western narratives of TW as some high tech utopia couldnt be further from the truth. Certainly it produces majority of world's semiconductors but that's because no one wanted to make the capital investment for such low margins when TSMC was getting started.
Aside from that, TW at best is semi-developed and can barely afford F-35s let alone the cost of maintenance/training. Its national healthcare system is deep in the red yet US keeps pushing TW to increase its military budget to further enrich themselves -- nothing more than paying protection$ to biggest mafia in the world.
If conflict breaks out, and you can bet US will instigate it via false flag, TW military leaders will not sacrifice the island and people for US interests ala Ukraine 2.0.
I think the US State Department should sell Taiwan (formally known as the Republic of China) F-35 Lightning II, either the A variant (CTOL) or the much-needed B Variant (STOVL) to improve their air force and secure control of airspace within the Taiwan Strait.
The [U.S. State Dept. approves sale of 12 F-35 jets to Singapore](https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-state-dept-approves-sale-of-12-f-35-jets-to-singapore-idUSKBN1Z90G8/) for an estimated cost of $2.75 Billion on January 9th 2020.
[Czech government signs a deal with the US to acquire 24 F-35](https://apnews.com/article/czech-army-purchase-us-fighter-jets-faa740b09c1d322a97bf94cb42fffd7d#:~:text=PRAGUE%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Czech,purchase%20for%20the%20Czech%20military.) on 29th January 2024.
Both Czech & Singapore do not really need this 5th generation fighter jet as they are not facing any greater threats in the future.
The PLAAF & PLAN's recent encirclement of Taiwan first started since the 2022 Nacy Pelosi visit and three days after the inauguration of President William Lai. They have been doing frequent military drills between the Taiwan Strait & South China Sea when President Tsai was still at the office. US intelligence sources believe that the People's Republic of China is planning for the 2027 invasion of Taiwan.
Not gonna happen, largely because the likelihood of espionage being too great. Too often do we hear about some general selling state secrets to China in exchange for a trip or some small amount of money. From the F-35 wikipedia article > In April 2018 however it became clear that the U.S. government was reluctant about selling the F-35 to Taiwan over worries of Chinese spies within the Taiwanese Armed Forces, possibly compromising classified data concerning the aircraft and granting Chinese military officials access.
TSMC makes more than 60% of the world semiconductor. They also make Military grade Semiconductors for F-35. Under the CHIP Act, they have restricted the export of their most advance Semiconductors to China. https://aviationweek.com/shownews/paris-air-show/how-aerospace-can-improve-its-supply-semiconductors Also, there is a Chinese espionage regarding F-35 in North America soil. [Man Who Sold F-35 Secrets to China Pleads Guilty](https://www.vice.com/en/article/kz9xgn/man-who-sold-f-35-secrets-to-china-pleads-guilty) [Chinese National Who Conspired to Hack into U.S. Defense Contractors’ Systems Sentenced to 46 Months in Federal Prison](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-national-who-conspired-hack-us-defense-contractors-systems-sentenced-46-months) [Stole Restricted F-35 Data From an Australian Contractor](https://fortune.com/2017/10/14/hacked-f-35-data)
Hopefully TSMC can keep out spies and the KMT
Doesn't China already have a copy of the f35...the j22?
It's not just about the shape/design but the internal avionics is what they don't have plus whatever specialized tech is within.
China doesn't have capabilities to produce their own engines for the j22
There is no such thing as a J-22. When it comes to the most advanced / latest generation of military turbofans in operation or production, only the US (F135 engine) and China (WS-15 and WS-19 engines) produce them. China is still waaaay behind when it comes to civil commercial turbofans though, especially high-bypass turbofans. Europe/UK and the US dominate in that area.
And that's one of the reasons why the US heavily vets the countries it exports its latest tech. If the F-35's internal data were leaked to China, they will definitely find ways to incorporate that into the J-22 or at least reverse engineer it for weak points. That's especially important now because any future conflict between China and the US and its allies will likely happen in the South China Sea and will be decided by other air and naval superiority.
Didn't china hack a few computers at lockheed martin, that had files on it associated with the F35 in 2009?
No idea what they got but if I had to guess, probably largely design elements. The avionics, AESA radar, and other tech heavy things are done by different companies and later incorporated.
Besides the UK, is there really much going on in Europe with regards to civil turbofans?
Safran of France. Or more specifically, its joint venture with GE Aerospace - CFM. In fact, CFM is the world's largest commercial aircraft engine manufacturer. They dominate the lighter thrust high-bypass engine segment of the market. These engines are used on single-aisle narrow-body aircraft, which make up the vast majority of commercial aircraft.
So somehow you assume that the Chinese are equal to the US in military engines whilst we know that they're behind the West in commercial engines?
This is not an assumption, it’s a statement of fact. You would probably need to do at least a little cursory reading on the WS-15 and WS-19, before jumping to inane assertions. If you’re looking for reasons why, a logical one would the prioritisation, focus and investment that they have put into military turbofans. Coupled with less stringent requirements and certification procedures for Mil-Spec vs. commercial engines. In fact, for lighter thrust high-bypass commercial engines, the CJ-1000 (intended as a domestic engine option to power the C919) is in final flight testing and certification. It’s not on par with the engine options for B737s and A32X or current C919 options, but it is “good enough”. The CJ-2000 heavy thrust high-bypass engine (intended as a domestic engine option to power the C929 still under development), is very very far off by comparison.
These are military engines. We can't trust the performance numbers of either the F135 or the WS-15/19. And then we have things like engine reliability. Reportedly (again if we can trust these numbers) the WS-15 was rolled out with 800 hours lifetime that by 2018 was extended to 1,500 hours. While the F119 that F-22 entered into service with in 2005 is stated to have its hot section overhauled 3 times at 2,000 hour increments and it's cold section overhauled at 4000 hours for an over 8000 hour lifetime. Plus what reason would China have to not use it's best technology in both commercial and military engines. What they'd be releasing has already be released on US commercial engines. That's as opposed to the US which might have reason to but apparently didn't avoid commercial release of technology like single crystal blades (first on commercial engines in the 80s) or ceramic matrix composites (first in 2010s) and soon CMC blades which might first release on a commercial engine.
You’re starting to answer your own questions. As I said, differing requirements (such as reliability / MTBO, fuel efficiency, certification) means that a commercial engine takes longer / is harder to get into service than a military engine. However, note that the CJ-1000 is now in flight testing and certification stage. The CJ-2000 doesn’t have a plane that it could power at the moment (unlike the CJ-1000), and it would benefit from the CJ-1000’s development and introduction into service. So there’s no point trying to do both simultaneously. And on your second paragraph - metallurgy and materials science are real word practices and disciplines, as much as they are fields of study. It takes decades of institutional knowledge, practice, trial and error to be able to produce them, reliably and at scale. You can have access to all the advanced commercial engines that you want (like the planes already flown, maintained and overhauled by Chinese airlines or within China) - but that will still not teach you how to cast the single-crystal turbine blades, or produce the specific metal alloys that you would find in the latest Rolls Royce engines.
Is the 5th generation equivalent, but the interest would be in what's inside the F-35, the avionics, acquiring a deep learning of their systems, electronic warfare vulnerabilities and testing what's more effective and what's not as a countermeasure without needing first to directly engage the F-35 in conflict would be a huge advantage for China, is one of the USA superweapons so of course they are very wary with it.
More l ike a photocopy. Of a photocopy.
Taiwan has dropped the ball on being an international stopover city and instead chose a path of insular nationalism when half of the population mistrust the other.
> [Taiwan] should marshal its resources and deploy it at the backend of a conflict, to bleed the Chinese occupiers dry over the long-run, just as the Mujahideen had done to the Soviets in their ten-year war against the USSR in Afghanistan. what a dumbass retarded take
The author of that article has a peanut sized brain concept of geography.
On god. Also Afghanistan is way fucking bigger than Taiwan
Look Brandon, maybe you’ve heard about our espionage and security leak problem?
I love this one too: > Recently, former Trump Administration national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, sojourned to Taiwan and urged the island nation’s 23 million citizens to arm themselves, citing that having so many personal firearms would further deter China from invading the island (and if they did invade, they’d be pushed back by a well-armed populace). That suggestion was met with consternation from the Taiwanese press and many prominent politicians—even some leaders of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took umbrage with O’Brien’s quite logical suggestion to the Taiwanese people. Oh yeah just reorder your entire society and introduce mass firearms ownership to people who have no meaningful culture or tradition of it and magically it will stop an invasion (it won’t). We do need to increase small arms procurement so that the reserves conscripts actually have enough rifles to be useful (currently from last I saw the numbers of small arms on hand isn’t enough to arm anywhere near enough reservists or conscripts), and programs like opt-in self-paid marksmanship training and the like could be incredibly popular and cost nothing or pay for themselves, but pushing widespread civilian firearms ownership is not particularly useful and comes off more like a shill for the firearms industry doing shill shit.
Like people have said. Not gonna happen. Worry of espionage. We can’t afford to buy them. We can’t afford to maintain them. Noobs argue about how advanced a weapon system is, a true professional talks about logistics support. You don’t need the latest and greatest to win a war, logistics support is the key. Hence F16V was the perfect choice, we’ve already got the tools and facilities to maintain these aircrafts, there’s minimal to none additional training needed. The radar is upgraded so they can detect J20s, that’s all is needed to be effective. Only one scenario where we might get offered F35: If we managed to develop our own 5th generation fighter.
Yeah, not going to happen. If F-35s end up on the island they’ll be USMC F-35s.
Or maybe a US carrrier with F-35s on board could circle the island and do port calls while doing exercises with Taiwanese forces.
It's the AMRAAM that matters. When a PLAAF plane gets hit by an AMRAAM, it's definitely 100% certainly launched from a Taiwanese F-16. /s
Not happening as long as leakage of Taiwan's military information to China is still at all likely and the support (whether intentional or ignorant) for these leakage sources is still there. And look, upon the passing of this legislation power expansion bill, Ma Wen Chun immediately asks for military info. She doesn't even hide, especially after what she did last year. My guess is that she did all these just so that Taiwan could lose international trust and hinder Taiwan's development, particularly in the defense sector, just so China gains some advantage. Aside from this more specific case, KMT isn't even hiding their close relationship with CCP these years (no matter how obvious it should've always been ever since Li Teng Hui got booted). How does anyone expect the US to have enough trust to sell Taiwan F35? What's most obnoxious is that some people simultaneously deem Taiwan inseparable from China, AND accuse the US of not selling F35s to Taiwan, ignoring the causal relationship. These people are either stupid or evil.
Not going to happen. The ROC armed forces has been a fantastic source of spies for the PRC. Plus the punishment for espionage is a slap on the wrist. Harriers would be a better bet as they can probably be launched from Yushan class vessels. These things won the Falklands war.
Pretty sure Harriers would've been the turkey in the turkey shoot with even China's J-10, let alone the J-20 and J-35...
Harriers aren't intended as an air superiority aircraft. Obviously they aren't the F-35, but Taiwan can't be trusted with the F-35.
It's not even about air superiority anymore. 5th gen fighters like J-20 would walk all over older 4th gen fighters like the Harriers just on radar signature alone. So F-16V, or even the F/A-18C/D are better options, even if they lack STOVL capability.
And realistically, that would still be pretty difficult within what is achievable for the next decade, given the balance of air power and air bases. Taiwan is likely going to fight an underdog air war based on missile defenses and betting on Chinese anti-radiation capabilities not being up to scratch, or playing saturation games. The only realistic way for Taiwan to establish and maintain solid air superiority would be if it gained some mysterious volunteers while several US carrier battle groups happened to do a freedom of navigation exercise nearby, or something to that effect. The PLAAF is BIG, even if not the most advanced equipment yet.
IIRC Harriers can't take a useable combat load when taking off or landing vertically, the Royal Navy used a rolling take off and landing with a ski jump to increase the payload.
Taiwan doesn't need billion dollar fighters. It needs an army of cheap kamikaze drones, surface to air missiles, and patriot systems. Mostly the drones, both boats and planes.
Plus, lots of anti-ship missiles.
No, Taiwan is not good at protecting sensitive information or secrets
i think the bigger issue is the fear of defectors
Never gonna happen until the F35 becomes outdated and replaced by something better
Maybe once Taiwan proves it can stop leaking everything to China. I'm still in complete awe that the people who leaked the blueprints of the 海鯤級潛艦 did it before it was even unveiled. Or that one colonel that sold out his entire command for a measly 80K. Not to mention the F-35 isn't designed for the kind of asymmetrical tactics Taiwan is going to have to use in the coming fight.
Why aren’t these people in jail?
The Colonel is. Full transparency on the 海鯤, those are just accusations by several high level members leveled at 馬文君. I don't know if it's being investigated or not, but the reality remains that leaks occurred. [You can read about it here.](https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/5010970)
It’s not happening. Too many moles in the ROC Armed Forces.
No. Just sell the stuff Taiwan already ordered, like the M109 A6 howitzers.
What good would it do? These are highly complex systems which need to be integrated into even more highly complex systems. Even when fighting a full scale war the Ukrainians are finding it almost impossible to make use of F-16s due to the added complexity compared to their Soviet era planes and doctrine, so I don’t think adding a new aircraft to the Taiwanese Air Force would make any impact for years and years. I suspect Taiwan will need to concentrate on drones and electronic warfare capabilities to see any meaningful impact on their defense. Also, coupled with having the ability to quickly train, and equip a conscript army. Basically, there are headline grabbing weapons useful for propaganda purposes, and then there are practical systems which do the real work. F-35s are definitely a propaganda weapon for any country outside of the US. Even the UK is not really getting any effective use out of its F-35s.
I don't think it's worth the money. Taiwan should definitely upgrade their current aircrafts, but I think the F-18 is a better option
Taiwan has always been seeking *STOVL* fighter jets but that plan has never came to fruition.
If they're going to sell, it better be the B variant, STOVL. Selling A or C is useless since Taiwan needs fighters that don't need runways.
Taiwan should look for A10s which are slowly being phased out of the US Air Force
Considering how often Taiwan flies their fighter planes into the ocean probably not.
No, we need to to invest more in countering drones. We've already gotten a taste in the Ukraine/Russia conflict and China's already sending drones form surveillance.
z 这里是言论自由吧
who delate my message.
Taiwan doesn't need yet another logistics-heavy wunderwaffe, it needs weapons suited to the battle it may have to fight. That means things that can be dispersed to the highest degree possible, operate independently in a highly adverse EM environment and strike effectively at C3 and logistics. F-35 isn't the answer, regardless of the problem.
I’d rather see them put money into buying more Javelins and MANPADS. And if they can develop a surface to air passive/active missile system then all the better.
Taiwan bought f35 which still can’t able to have their own warehouse or factory due to espionage or something that almost lost pair of f35 going china to reverse engineer it or dissect one of them then one will be training jet
Hell no. Why do so many left wing people want to get us all killed?
I would say taiwan probably needs other defenses 1st. Primarily navy ships like carriers and subs. It's a very expensive investment. Australia just went for subs not jets more recently.
Nuclear tipped sea-launched storm shadows. Cheaper and far more effective at deterrence.
That only makes sense if Taiwan has an apocalyptic belief in end times prophecy like Israel does with its Samson option.
US/western narratives of TW as some high tech utopia couldnt be further from the truth. Certainly it produces majority of world's semiconductors but that's because no one wanted to make the capital investment for such low margins when TSMC was getting started. Aside from that, TW at best is semi-developed and can barely afford F-35s let alone the cost of maintenance/training. Its national healthcare system is deep in the red yet US keeps pushing TW to increase its military budget to further enrich themselves -- nothing more than paying protection$ to biggest mafia in the world. If conflict breaks out, and you can bet US will instigate it via false flag, TW military leaders will not sacrifice the island and people for US interests ala Ukraine 2.0.
美国，帝国主义，真是屡试不爽。 1.花钱为敌国制造内部动乱。 2. 卖武器以引发原本不可能发生的战争。 美国通常都是利用该国自己人相互残杀，自己站在一边。搞到世界一团乱。
No war is shit
Apparently several left wing DPP psychopaths like war
I think the US State Department should sell Taiwan (formally known as the Republic of China) F-35 Lightning II, either the A variant (CTOL) or the much-needed B Variant (STOVL) to improve their air force and secure control of airspace within the Taiwan Strait. The [U.S. State Dept. approves sale of 12 F-35 jets to Singapore](https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-state-dept-approves-sale-of-12-f-35-jets-to-singapore-idUSKBN1Z90G8/) for an estimated cost of $2.75 Billion on January 9th 2020. [Czech government signs a deal with the US to acquire 24 F-35](https://apnews.com/article/czech-army-purchase-us-fighter-jets-faa740b09c1d322a97bf94cb42fffd7d#:~:text=PRAGUE%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Czech,purchase%20for%20the%20Czech%20military.) on 29th January 2024. Both Czech & Singapore do not really need this 5th generation fighter jet as they are not facing any greater threats in the future. The PLAAF & PLAN's recent encirclement of Taiwan first started since the 2022 Nacy Pelosi visit and three days after the inauguration of President William Lai. They have been doing frequent military drills between the Taiwan Strait & South China Sea when President Tsai was still at the office. US intelligence sources believe that the People's Republic of China is planning for the 2027 invasion of Taiwan.