Friday, January 07, 2011

Friday Night Lites II

No time to blog today. Enjoy some links...

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That Ripley guy from the Winnipeg Sun is interesting as far as seeing what Taiwan's current government wants people to say. He is mindlessly regurgitating someone GIO garbage.

Make no mistake, the GIO wants you to believe we are back in 1971.

Dixteel said...

The problem with anti-subs is that it is just plain difficult. Japan, even with its 100 P-3C fleets have difficulty in this type of mission, then again the area Japanese navy needs to patrol is much larger. Technologies and systems need to be improved to deal with subs more effectively. I remember I read somewhere though that the best way to deal with subs is "containment." IE. Detect subs right after they leave the bases and start tracking each, like what the US did during the cold war. However, this also depends on the under sea terrain and the position of bases etc...(USSR has a disadvantages in this because it only has a few ports that are suitable for subs operation and their exits to the blue ocean is narrow)

Anonymous said...

Regarding the submarines:

The only reasonable solution for Taiwan is UAVs. They are versatile, have a small foot print, don't need a large runway, could use roads and makeshift airfields, and they are cheap.

They aren't easy to build, but fortunately, Taiwan actually has expertise in electronics. Might need to buy processing modules and software from the US or Israel or someone willing to make a buck off Taiwan.

UAVs will be key to defending Taiwan's skies, defending the waters around Taiwan, and attacking invasion staging areas across the strait. Most of all, they are cheap and survivable in the now likely event that Taiwan loses air superiority.

How many runways will be available if China attacks Taiwan? Even buying very cheap and effective F-16s, while necessary it seems because of the choices the US forces upon Taiwan, their usefulness is very limited because of vulnerability to damage to runways.

UAVs are the way to go. And the US should sell Taiwan the F-35B (VSTOL) so that they have planes that can take off when they don't have airports. But UAVs are the way to go.

blobOfNeurons said...

UAVs in Taiwan. That's a brilliant idea.

But why stop there? Build an entire robot army.

Hmm ... I never thought of Taiwan as being the future birthplace of Skynet.

Anonymous said...

Can someone explain to me why it is that the US continues to subsidize and arm Israel with the latest weapons even as Israel sells advanced weapons and electronics to China, whom the US may be in conflict with, yet continuously blackmails and sabotages Taiwan's defense efforts?

How is it that the US refuses to sell weapons to Taiwan so that Taiwan can defend itself?

Dixteel said...

anon,

Anti-sub UAV is a brilliant idea, although some major initial investment is required to make it effective. The cost and risk could be high, but is certainly a possible option. And if it is successfully developed, I think the systems could be much cheaper and more effective than the current anti-sub aircrafts.

I also think F-35 (VSTOL) is the best fit for Taiwan in manned aircrafts. Manned aircraft would still be necessary because from what I read manned-aircrafts are still required in missions where instant human judgement and flexibility is required. But in any case F-35 is not for anti-sub anyway. (For anti-subs you need large aircraft that can stay in the air for long period of time)

Unfortunately F-16s is the best option right now because first of all F-35 hasn't even enter into service in the US, and secondly I think the US won't fully trust Taiwan with such technology anyway (KMT and CCP is having sex now. Even if DPP come back to power, KMT still has a lot of influence in the military).