U.S. denies Taiwan's request under Chinese pressure

duplex · by **duplex** » 16 Aug 2011, 17:16

U.S. To Deny Taiwan New F-16 Fighters

Bowing to Chinese pressure, the U.S. will deny Taiwan's request for 66 new F-16C/D fighter aircraft, a Taiwan Ministry of National Defense (MND) official said.

[...]

Source: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i= ... =ASI&s=AIR

This confirms once again that the US is no longer the worlds sole superpower.
Any thoughts??

guardbaby · by **guardbaby** » 16 Aug 2011, 19:54

I will express my displeasure Nov 2012.

Ztex · by **Ztex** » 16 Aug 2011, 20:12

Wonder why?

LinkF16SimDude · by **LinkF16SimDude** » 16 Aug 2011, 20:25

How much life do the current Taiwan jets have left? Has there been any talk of a SLEP?

az2sdang · by **az2sdang** » 16 Aug 2011, 22:11

Time to clean out the Whitehouse.

guardbaby · by **guardbaby** » 16 Aug 2011, 23:16

sd2azang, I did 29 years at the 162...say 'Hi' to Ike in QA there in SD.

aardvark · by **aardvark** » 17 Aug 2011, 01:40

At first I wasn't sure but now I see the general trend of this administration has been toward weakening US defense. They keep sending the wrong message again and again and again. It reminds me post Vietnam when everything kind of went downhill for a while. That sad chapter culminated with Jimmy Carter and the Iranian hostage crisis.

We definitely have our heads in the sand with the war on terror and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bigger future picture is unfolding before us. History is our reminder but we seem doomed once again to repeating it.

Lets take the F-22 as an example. It's a potent weapon system. The merits of the F-22 have been argued back and forth but from a purely symbolic standpoint it's very powerful. It screams overwhelming invincibility in the air.

Obama really made a point of letting us know he was ending production. After the recent debt limit agreement there seemed to be an all assault on defense. The media having already cast considerable scorn on the F-35 now seem to be portraying it as a project facing possible cancellation.

Obama really does seem to be abdicating to China here. It' unfortunate. China's trade practices are partly responsible for the financial situation in the US.

Obama needs to be called out on his refusal or inability to confront China financially or militarily.

faust · by **faust** » 17 Aug 2011, 02:00

is time to the euros getting in...

aardvark · by **aardvark** » 17 Aug 2011, 04:15

Maybe Russia will sell them some new jets.

discofishing · by **discofishing** » 17 Aug 2011, 06:24

This confirms once again that the US is no longer the worlds sole superpower.
Any thoughts??

Military superpower, or economic superpower? Either way, some could, in part, owe their existence to the US. We stick up for them in WWII and buy their products giving them business. Obama is proof Americans have very poor memories and little attention span for the lessons history has been trying to teach us.

Taiwan obviously wants more aircraft. If not F-16C/Ds, why not give them some low hour F-16A/Bs from AMARG and perform a super-MLU on them. That pretty much would make the just as capable as any C model right? Well, minus the CFTs, of course.

duplex · by **duplex** » 17 Aug 2011, 09:11

Obama needs to be called out on his refusal or inability to confront China financially or militarily.[/quote]

Not only that..The US nuclear deterrence is falling apart..Minuteman III' s are 40+ years old and don't work properly. Russia and China are developing new nuclear weapons, ICBM's like crazy while the US didn't build a single nuclear wearhead since more than 20 years !!! What comes after Trident 2? difficult times ahead..The US needs another Ronald Reagan and fast..

duplex · by **duplex** » 17 Aug 2011, 09:33

Ztex wrote:Wonder why?

No ,its the lack of leadership on the part of the US..Chinese economy is dependent on the purchasing power of American consumers so if the US goes bankrupt what will happen to chinese manufacturing industries cheap, low-quality goods that is making the economy grow 9% a year ? Chinese know this perfectly well
A strong leader would say to China' Sorry guys , we are not gonna leave Taiwan defenceless ' and deliver these new Vipers.

southernphantom · by **southernphantom** » 18 Aug 2011, 01:57

Wait a sec....B-1A anyone?

Cancelled by a defense-hater but not entirely killed off. Later revived by the best president EVER, upgraded, and becomes one of the best deep strike/CAS platforms in the inventory. See where I'm going?

F-22A = B-1A?

I pray to God that it is so.

duplex · by **duplex** » 18 Aug 2011, 10:30

shabah_cactus wrote:
duplex wrote:Minuteman III' s are 40+ years old and don't work properly. Russia and China are developing new nuclear weapons, ICBM's like crazy while the US didn't build a single nuclear wearhead since more than 20 years !!! What comes after Trident 2? difficult times ahead..The US needs another Ronald Reagan and fast..

The Minutemans don't work properly? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChhYOO1s ... kg&index=4

I don't know how old this video is, however.

http://www.brahmand.com/news/Minuteman- ... /1/10.html

madrat · by **madrat** » 18 Aug 2011, 12:28

The problem with Minuteman III is that the younger engineers don't know it like the older guys did. It's too long in the tooth. Why was the MX/Peacekeeper retired/bartered away so darn easily? They allowed them to be a part of the arms reduction negotiations when they should have been off the table. They should have resisted the demand, kept them, and offered to retire more Minutemans instead.