The ongoing military action against Libya could provide some good news for Taiwan, defense officials said.
The US Navy’s new EA-18G “Growler,” an electronic warfare aircraft, has been seeing its first combat experience in the military action against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and has reportedly been performing well. Given its capabilities, the aircraft could play a vital role in the defense of Taiwan should the US intervene in any armed conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
One military Web site reported: “As the United Nations-sanctioned war against Libya moves into its third day, no US, French or British aircraft have been shot down by Libyan air defenses. Part of the credit should go to the Navy’s new jammer.”
Photo: Reuters
US Vice Admiral Bill Gortney told media that the EA-18G had provided electronic warfare support to the coalition’s attack.
Jammers such as the EA-18G are platforms equipped with electronic countermeasures providing an umbrella of protection for ground and air forces by jamming enemy radar, electronic data links and communications systems.
While details remain classified, the “Growler” — which is replacing the Navy’s EA-6B “Prowler” jammer fleet — is believed to have located and disabled the communications systems used by Libyan tank columns and defeated surface-to-air missiles, thus enabling the coalition to launch air strikes against ground forces.
Sources said the Growler would soon have the capability to insert viruses into enemy command networks, causing electronic chaos.
“The Growler’s performance could certainly be good news for Taiwan,” John Pike, head of the Washington-based Global Security think tank, told the Taipei Times. “While China has more advanced equipment than Libya, the US remains about twenty years ahead of Beijing.”
“It’s a cat and mouse game of measures and counter-measures, but with the latest US advances we can probably blind the Chinese radars. And if they can’t see us, they can’t hit us,” he said.
A specialized version of the two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet, the Growler has become a Pentagon priority. Two years ago, the Pentagon decided to buy more Growlers rather than continue production of the F-22 stealth fighter.
A US defense expert said the US Navy’s “real plan” for winning any future air war with China was to attack “where they’re most vulnerable” — in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The star of that spectrum, experts said, is the Growler.
Asked about China’s development of a new stealth aircraft and long-range anti-ship missiles earlier this year, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that China’s “anti-access programs” were being dealt with.
In particular, Gates’ aides mentioned China’s efforts to impede US access in any conflict over Taiwan.
Gates said at the time that the US would speed up its development of electronic jammers to improve the ability to fight and survive in an anti-access environment.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS