Now it looks like this evolution into a porcupine is going to take a while longer. The idea is for Taiwan to become an “undigestable porcupine,” to borrow the government’s own metaphor. “The sorts of survivable, low-profile and networked defenses that can survive an initial Chinese attack and be resilient and lethal for weeks or months,” according to Scott Harold, an analyst at RAND, a California think tank. Increasingly, Taipei is investing in defensive systems such as the mobile Harpoon. Taipei no longer can count on defeating an invasion fleet far from the island’s shores. After two decades of explosive economic growth, Beijing now spends 25 times more on its armed forces than Taiwan does on its own military.ĭespite recent Taiwanese purchases of American F-16 fighters and M-1 tanks and Taipei’s ambitious effort to develop a new submarine, today China has more and better conventional forces than Taiwan possesses. It could prolong the transformation of the Taiwanese armed forces.įor decades, Taiwan could count on its mostly American-supplied ships, planes and tanks to outnumber and outclass China’s own ships, planes and tanks.īut China, with its 1.4 billion people, always possessed more military potential than did Taiwan with its 23 million people. The slowd0wn isn’t just about missile-launchers. Taiwan to potentially acquire 100 Harpoon Coastal.Malaysia's third Keris-class Littoral Mission Ship.Tonga accepts second Guardian-class patrol boat fr.Japan offers to export warships to Indonesia.Philippines receives first batch of 5 Sikorsky S-7.Rheinmetall unveils KF41 Lynx tracked infantry fig.Australia shortlists Insitu and Textron for Tactic.Indonesia receives, deploys first NASAMS 2 air def.Malaysia to start receiving new MD-530G light atta.Japan launches its second new 30DX multi-mission f.Japan scheduled to retire its last frontline F-4 P.Philippines receives laser guided bombs, TOW anti.Philippines receives new ScanEagle 2 surveillance.Thailand orders new Insitu RQ-21 Blackjack tactica.South Korea to start series production of new KTSS. In addition to the Harpoons missiles, the US State Department also notified the US Congress on a potential sale of Boeing Standoff Land Attack Missile Extended Range (SLAM-ER) missiles and HIMARS rocket systems, and reconnaissance pods which are expected to cost around US$1.8 billion, and could enable Taiwan to strike coastal targets in the Chinese mainland. The introduction of the Harpoon Coastal Defense System would speed up the establishment of an effective Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) system against China. Taiwan already has a more capable coastal defense system using the indigenous Hsiung Feng II subsonic and Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missiles, but production rate has not been enough to meet Taiwan's requirements. The proposed deal, with each Harpoon launching system armed with 4 Harpoon anti-ship missiles for a total of 400 Harpoon missiles, also includes 25 truck-mounted radar systems, training missies, spare parts, support and training, is one of the largest defense deals between Taiwan and the US.Īccording to the US State Department, Taiwan would be spending its money should it pursue with the deal.ĭespite being an older technology and the short range of only 67 nautical miles, the sheet quantity to cover a small area makes it an important acquisition to defend Taiwan from a possible invasion force from mainland China. , are these going to be Block II, Block II+, or Block II+ ER Show replies. Well, that may be, but this sounds like a trivial problem and clearly its been solved. The US State Department has approved the sale of 100 Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems to the government of Republic of China (Taiwan), which is expected to cost around US$2.4 billion. doesn’t have land launch missiles & Ukraine has no ships left.
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