As Taiwan awaits Washington’s decision on whether it will sell the Lockheed Martin F-16C/D aircraft Taipei has been seeking since 2007, rumors are now emerging that Taipei’s request for preferred radar system for an upgrade program for its ageing F-16A/Bs might also be encountering difficulties.
The US government is scheduled to announce on Oct. 1 — national day in the People’s Republic of China — whether it will proceed with the sale of 66 F-16C/Ds to Taiwan or limit itself to a US$4.5 billion upgrade for Taiwan’s 144 F-16A/Bs acquired in the early 1990s.
Taiwan does not regard the upgrades as an alternative to the F-16C/Ds and maintains that the two options must be exercised to ensure a balance of air power in the Taiwan Strait.
In addition to new electronic warfare systems, radio, engines and missiles, one key component of the upgrade would be the acquisition of advanced active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, a “drop in” modular system regarded as an ideal option to give aging fighter fleets the world over a second life, especially as countries are becoming increasingly reluctant to acquire the problem-plagued F-35.
Aside from nearly doubling the range of the standard mechanically scanned array (MSA) radar currently used on the F-16, AESA radars can operate in all weather and provide multifunction, ultra-high resolution air-to-air and air-to-ground coverage.
However, US officials are divided on whether to provide Taiwan with AESA technology over fears of possible technological transfer to China. One US source recently referred to the AESA program as currently being “off the radar” in Washington, with no movement on an eventual release.
Defense experts nevertheless believe the AESA has a better chance of being released as a consolation prize if the US turns down Taiwan’s request for the F-16C/Ds.
A senior defense industry official involved in the F-16 program confirmed to the Taipei Times at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition yesterday that the Taiwanese Air Force had signaled its intent to Washington to purchase a total of 144 AESA radar units to retrofit all its F-16A/Bs.
The likeliest candidate to provide Taiwan with ASEA radar is Raytheon, with its Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar (RACR), with Northrop Grumman’s Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) the other option. Both are optimized to fit F-16 aircraft.
If Taiwan failed to obtain AESA radar, an alternative would be less advanced updates to the current ones used on its F-16s.
Speaking at the Paris Air Show in late June, Mark Kula, vice president for tactical airborne systems at Raytheon said the company hoped to have “some sort of go ahead” on a production contract for the RACR “within the year.”
Defense analysts then said the first customer would be either Taiwan or South Korea, which are both seeking to modernize their F-16s.
Drew Robbins, manager of the F-16 radar programs at Raytheon, told the Taipei Times yesterday that the RACR was fully developed and operational and that a number of countries in Asia had expressed interest buying it, though no orders had been placed yet.
He would not provide figures on cost per unit.
Asked if costs or other considerations were behind the apparently stalled efforts to secure AESA radar for Taiwan, officials at Raytheon denied this was the case, adding that the problem was more political and set in Washington.
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
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
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