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Taiwan's Military Shores Up Indigenous Defense Capabilities


ErnstBlofeld

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?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=36808&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=62880d61cbThe Jamestown Foundation:

 

While Taiwan is stepping up calls for the United States to sell the island new F-16 jets and diesel submarines, there are signs that the Taiwanese military has been shoring up the island’s indigenously developed military capabilities. Recent pronouncements by a prominent Taiwanese legislator from the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party revealed that the Hsiung Feng "Brave Wind" 2E surface-to-surface cruise missile system developed by the Chunghsan Institute of Science and Technology may be deployed around the end of 2010. According to KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang, who chairs the Legislative Yuan's National Defense Committee, the Wan Chien "Ten Thousand Swords" cluster bomb has also passed the air force’s "initial operational testing" and will eventually be employed to augment the combat capabilities of its Indigenous Defensive Fighter (IDF) (China Times, August 30; September 8; Liberty Times, September 8).

 

These developments dovetail a recent U.S. announcement that Washington will sell new radar upgrades for Taiwan's IDF, which follows in line with Taiwanese efforts to upgrade its F-CK-1 A/B IDF, or Ching-kuo, into C/D "joint strike fighters" (Defense News, August 25). When equipped with the new Wan Chien "Ten Thousand Swords" cluster bomb, the Taiwanese Air Force would reportedly be able to strike China's military installations from more than 200 kilometers away (Liberty Times, September 8).

 

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Edited by Rheo
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