Recently, according to Taiwan media reports, an F5E fighter of the 7th Wing of the Taiwan Air Force crashed into the sea less than 2 minutes after taking off. The pilot died after parachuting to survive. The accident caused widespread concern in Taiwan media. At present, the F5E/F fighter is still one of the main fighters of the Taiwan military. It is mainly equipped with the Seventh Flight Training Wing stationed at the Zhihang base, and is mainly responsible for the training tasks of new pilots and ground-to-sea attacks. Taiwan's F5 fighters have been in service for more than 40 years, and many accidents have occurred since 2001. The crash of the F5 fighter plane coincides with the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait, which will undoubtedly put pressure on the Taiwan Air Force. Despite this, the overall strength of the Taiwan Air Force should not be underestimated, and it must respond with a twelve-point spirit.
The Taiwan Air Force F-5 fighter aircraft
collected in the Chinese Aviation Museum in Changping, Beijing has been used as an important force to ensure the security of Taiwan Island since its establishment. Since the 1990s, the Taiwan military has put forward the operational thinking of air control as the first priority, sea control as the focus, and anti-landing decisive victory. The Taiwan Air Force has undoubtedly played a vital role in this. The Taiwan Air Force is mainly responsible for air combat, reconnaissance, transportation and training tasks. At the same time, the Taiwan military is also equipped with a large number of air defense missile systems, forming a multi-level three-dimensional air defense system, which makes the Taiwan region one of the most rigorous air defense firepower areas in the world. Compared with other military services, the overall combat capability of the Taiwan Air Force is quite good for the
EC-130 electronic warfare aircraft
. Especially from the 1990s to the beginning of the 21st century, the Taiwan Air Force’s equipment and training levels were better than those of the People’s Liberation Army at that time. The F16, IDF, and Mirage 2000 fighter jets equipped by the Taiwan Air Force at that time also formed great equipment and technical advantages for the People's Liberation Army at that time. This also gave the Lee Teng-hui authorities great confidence in military control. However, as the strength of the mainland air force has increased, the Taiwan Air Force has gradually been overtaken in terms of technical level. However, the Taiwan Air Force is still equipped with about 300 third-generation fighters, 6 E-2T early warning aircraft, 1 EC-130 electronic warfare aircraft , 18 EAT-3 electronic jammers and other combat support aircraft. . Coupled with the anti-aircraft missile systems such as the Patriot, Tiangong, and Hawke equipped by Taiwan’s air defense forces, its overall combat capability cannot be underestimated.
Currently, the Taiwan Air Force has approximately 35,000 combat troops, equipped with 688 combat aircraft of various types, including approximately 520 fighter jets. The Taiwan Air Force also has a battle management radar unit, which is organized into 4 combat control centers, 3 mobile control units, 11 fixed radar positions, 4 mobile radar positions, and 21 radars of various types. It also has an air control center, which is mainly responsible for the overall air defense security of the Taiwan, Penghu, Jinma area. In addition, there is also a mobile radar unit in Eluanbi, Dajinmen, and Taitung, which are mainly responsible for airborne mobile alert tasks. The Taiwan Air Force has a total of 14 important air force bases, divided into three-line configuration. Not only are facilities complete, but also equipped with protective facilities. They are equipped with reinforced hangars. Oil depots, hangars and ammunition depots are mostly underground and semi-underground, and their anti-strike capabilitiesStrong.
F16 fighters
The main types of air force fighters at this stage are 150 F16A/B fighters, 130 IDF fighters and 60 Mirage 2000-5 fighters. Among them, the absolute main force of the Taiwan Air Force is F16A/B fighters. They are all Block 15OCUs manufactured according to MLU standards, equipped with AN/APG-66(V)3 radar, wide-view HUD, digital terrain system, GPS, night vision The mirror is compatible with advanced equipment such as the cockpit and the new modular task computer. They are also equipped with F100-PW-220 engines, capable of using Raytheon AN/ALQ-184(V)7 pods and Pathfinder pods (without terrain tracking radar and laser target indication functions). F16A/B can carry AIM-7M, AIM-9M/P4 and AIM-120C-5 air-to-air missiles, and also has the ability to use AGM-65 air-to-surface missiles and AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The Taiwan Air Force also hopes to increase the use of Tianjian 2 long-range air-to-air missiles and Xiongfeng 2 anti-ship missiles for the F16 fighters. However, because the United States does not want Taiwan's military to have a strong attack capability, the United States rejected this request.
F16V
In 2019, the United States sold 66 newest F16Vs to Taiwan, which has also become the ace fighter of the Taiwan Air Force. Compared with F16A/B, F16V has undergone a comprehensive technical update and replaced with the latest APG-83 active phased array radar. It also replaced the onboard computer system and avionics system, using two 4×4 inches and one 6×8 inches high-resolution color monitor. F16V can use a variety of advanced pods, with the ability to use AIM-120D medium-range interceptor bombs and AIM-9X close-range combat bombs, as well as various precision-guided weapons. Compared with the early F16A/B, the performance of F16V has been greatly improved. Its radar detection range has increased by 30%, its detection capability has increased by 220%, and its comprehensive combat capability has increased by 1.8 to 2 times. The overall combat capability is in the third and a half generation fighters. s level. However, the F16V, as a three-generation semi-fighter, can cost more than 60 million US dollars for a single upgrade, while the price of a F35 fighter is only more than 90 million US dollars. It can be seen that the US has made a fortune on F16V.
F35
At the same time, the strength of Taiwan's air defense forces cannot be underestimated. Taiwan has the highest density of air defense firepower in the world. The Taiwan military is equipped with 1,566 anti-aircraft missiles of various types. Including 24 Patriot missiles, 55 Tiangong air defense missiles, 108 Hawke air defense missiles. The Taiwan military is also equipped with 21 radar bases and adopts a US-made fully automatic central command system. The air defense capability is relatively strong. In addition, the Taiwan Air Force has a relatively high level of overall combat readiness. It can also share data links and various air information with the US military during wartime.
Therefore, the Taiwan Air Force is still a force that cannot be underestimated in wartime. According to the Taiwan military’s vision, relying on Taiwan’s rigorous air defense missile network, with radar bases all over Taiwan, plus Taiwan’s F16, IDF, and Mirage 2000 fighters, Taiwan’s military can organize strong air defense interception firepower. Delayed the PLA Air Force's offensive, and provided ground forces support in anti-landing operations.
J-10C
However, the air defense capabilities of the Taiwan Air Force still have certain problems. First, the number of advanced fighters is insufficient, and there is a certain gap in performance from the PLA Air Force. With the improvement of the mainland's military strength in recent years, especially the service of various new fighters of the PLA Air Force, the technical level of Taiwan Air Force fighters has gradually become weaker than that of the PLA Air Force. Currently, the PLA Air Force is equipped with more than 1,000 fighters of three generations and above. The most advanced F-16 and F-10C are slightly better than the F16V in performance. What's more, the PLA Air Force is also equipped with stealth fighters such as the F-20, which are technically at the same level as the most advanced US F22 and F35 fighters. . Therefore, the technical advantages of PLA Air Force fighters are still very obvious.
Secondly, although Taiwan's air defense missile force is large in number, its number of advanced radars is insufficient, and it is vulnerable to long-range firepower of the People's Liberation Army, and its survivability is insufficient. The mainland has powerful long-range attack firepower, including various short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and even long-range rocket launchers that can attack Taiwan’s radar stations and airports.Launch long-range strikes. The J-20 can also use long-range precision-guided weapons to destroy Taiwan’s air defense network by virtue of its stealth capability. This makes the Taiwan military's rigorous air defense system play a relatively limited role.
F20
In addition, in recent years, Taiwan’s space for outsourcing weapons has become smaller and smaller, and the United States has become more cautious about arms sales to Taiwan in order to avoid overstimulating the mainland, which has led to the failure of effective maintenance and updating of many Taiwan’s military equipment. For example, the Taiwan Air Force’s F5 fighters have been in service for more than 40 years, but in order to make up for the shortage of fighters, the Taiwan Air Force still maintains a number of F5 fighters to continue to serve, and the Mirage 2000-5 has even been grounded for lack of spare parts.
Therefore, in terms of overall strength, the Taiwan Air Force may find it difficult to counter the PLA's strikes. However, tactically, Taiwan's tight air defense system still poses a greater threat to our military. For this reason, we cannot take the overall strength of the Taiwan Air Force lightly, and we must also maintain a high degree of vigilance regarding the US-Taiwan military interaction and arms sales operations.
