Taiwan to upgrade 145 F16 A/B

[weasel1962]

Nice article by Mike as usual.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/03 ... ual-twist/

Taiwan has requested a fleet of new fighters from the United States, but it didn’t specify a type, leaving it up to the U.S. to recommend an option, according to defense officials.

Could just as easily be F-15X.

[Corsair1963]

Nice article by Mike as usual.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/03 ... ual-twist/

Taiwan has requested a fleet of new fighters from the United States, but it didn’t specify a type, leaving it up to the U.S. to recommend an option, according to defense officials.

Could just as easily be F-15X.

I was thinking the same thing. Offer the F-15X to Taiwan. While, giving the USAF more F-35A's. (WIN-WIN)

[magnum4469]

Nice article by Mike as usual.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/03 ... ual-twist/

Taiwan has requested a fleet of new fighters from the United States, but it didn’t specify a type, leaving it up to the U.S. to recommend an option, according to defense officials.

Could just as easily be F-15X.

I was thinking the same thing. Offer the F-15X to Taiwan. While, giving the USAF more F-35A's. (WIN-WIN)

It would be Win-Win for the Taiwanese and Lose-Lose for the USA. Taiwan would get a great fighter that can carry 20+AAMs while the US would be stuck with the turkey that can only carry 4, unless it goes to beast mode, then only 6... https://www.raytheon.com/news/feature/arming_the_f-35 "The F-35 can carry up to two AIM-9X missiles on its wings and four AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles internally."

[madrat]

That turkey gobbled up the competition in every exercise it's been involved.

As far as F-15 goes, it has been getting it's own radar signature reduction enhancement since F-15E first went into production. The F-16 had to catch up from behind with Have Glass iterations. F-15X is getting F-15E caught back up after it fell behind. F-15X leverages on standoff missiles for counter air, while relying on a combination of SPJ and support assets for survival. F-35 is standalone technology, not requiring all the support assets. The weakest link on both is the footprint on the ground. F-35 wins it head to head, but unfortunately even RAND is declaring it the Achilles heel.

That leads me to an OT conclusion. Six generation fighters will need to be tougher to catch on the ground.

[weasel1962]

If F-35B, then may not see footprint on the ground.

[Corsair1963]

I was thinking the same thing. Offer the F-15X to Taiwan. While, giving the USAF more F-35A's. (WIN-WIN)

It would be Win-Win for the Taiwanese and Lose-Lose for the USA. Taiwan would get a great fighter that can carry 20+AAMs while the US would be stuck with the turkey that can only carry 4, unless it goes to beast mode, then only 6... https://www.raytheon.com/news/feature/arming_the_f-35 "The F-35 can carry up to two AIM-9X missiles on its wings and four AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles internally."[/quote]


I think your on the wrong forum. As you have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe you should consider one like AFM???

[weasel1962]

It's inadequate but better than nothing. Trump approves 66 f-16v for Taiwan.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/2019/0 ... 07081.html

[gc]

https://defence-blog.com/army/taiwan-se ... om-us.html

Not directly related but seems like Taiwan is seizing the opportunity now to submit more weapons request.

[wrightwing]

It would be Win-Win for the Taiwanese and Lose-Lose for the USA. Taiwan would get a great fighter that can carry 20+AAMs while the US would be stuck with the turkey that can only carry 4, unless it goes to beast mode, then only 6... https://www.raytheon.com/news/feature/arming_the_f-35 "The F-35 can carry up to two AIM-9X missiles on its wings and four AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles internally."

You might want to recheck your numbers. In "Beast Mode" the F-35 can carry 14 AIM-120 (and 16 once the internal carry goes to 6) + 2 AIM-9X. Of course once SACM comes on line, internal carriage goes to 12 AAMs. In any event, there's no scenario where the F-15 is going to be the superior platform. There's never been a scenario in the history of aerial combat, where there were enough targets to be able to use 22 AAMs.

[Corsair1963]

It would be Win-Win for the Taiwanese and Lose-Lose for the USA. Taiwan would get a great fighter that can carry 20+AAMs while the US would be stuck with the turkey that can only carry 4, unless it goes to beast mode, then only 6... https://www.raytheon.com/news/feature/arming_the_f-35 "The F-35 can carry up to two AIM-9X missiles on its wings and four AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles internally."

You might want to recheck your numbers. In "Beast Mode" the F-35 can carry 14 AIM-120 (and 16 once the internal carry goes to 6) + 2 AIM-9X. Of course once SACM comes on line, internal carriage goes to 12 AAMs. In any event, there's no scenario where the F-15 is going to be the superior platform. There's never been a scenario in the history of aerial combat, where there were enough targets to be able to use 22 AAMs.

Honestly, in the real world it's rare to carry more than eight......

[mixelflick]

This is a great point and one that needs some fleshing out..

A big selling point by Boeing is that the F-15EX can carry up to 22 AAM's. But really, how practical is that? Even assuming no drop tanks and instead CFT's, the drag index of those AAM's has to be enormous, bringing down it's range. Oops, there goes the F-15EX "persistence" argument.

So now we have a fighter with a huge radar signature, mediocre range and reduced speed as Taiwan's premiere fighter. They'll be up against significantly upgraded J-16's and SU-35's, and that doesn't include the J-20. If I'm not mistaken the J-15 and SU-35 have reduced signatures of their own, and the J-20 as we know is LO, if not VLO.

It's not going to be cheap, either. Taiwan will have to convert to a whole new airframe and associated airfield, hangar etc changes. The cost per flight hour will be a lot more than her F-16's too.

I suppose if they get enough airborne they can lumber along and using their big radars see the armada arrayed against them, firing as many AMRAAM's as possible at the massive Chinese formations. Then close the distance and try to clean up with 9x shots. The problem is that the survivors probably won't have an airfield to egress to.

The F-16V buy will suffer from the same issues, and probably be a lot less effective to boot. The AESA it has is no slouch, but doesn't really compare to the F-15X's monster AESA, coupled with the fastest mission computer yet fielded. I dunno. Politics won't allow Taiwan to get F-35's, and that's unfortunate. Because it's really the only aircraft that could give them a fighting chance vs. a Chinese onslaught...

[marsavian]

So now we have a fighter with a huge radar signature

The F-16 has an order of magnitude lower frontal RCS than F-15, around 1 sq m which more or less compensates for its smaller AESA when facing other fighters. As 4th gen fighters go it is a pretty well rounded design especially the F-16V.

[gc]

Proposed ROCAF F-16V to include CFTs and IRST.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... E0Oqihua4X

AESA, IRST and RWR to detect stealthy J-20/J-31, CFT to free up weapons station for up to 8 AAMs. Not bad an Air Superiority fighter. It will be good if the US can procure anti-ship JSMs for these F-16Vs and to make it a complete A2/AD package that can counter China's air and naval power.

[weasel1962]

The Taiwanese use harps on their F-16s.

[gc]

The Taiwanese use harps on their F-16s.

Yep but they lack the range and survivability of the JSM