Amid rising tensions with china the
taiwanese air force has signed a 15.5
million dollars agreement with
french-based mbda to service the missile
systems for its mirage 2000 jets. As reported by taiwannews.com the
country's air force has signed a 429
million taiwan dollars or 15.5 million
us dollars agreement with french-based MBDA to service the missile systems for
its mirage 2000 jets.
Taiwan bought 60 of the fighters from
france in 1992 along with 480 mica
medium range air-to-air missiles and 960
magic two short-range missiles. The Shinchu Air Force Base is home to all
the french jets, it reported that the new
contract which will be valid from
january 1st 2022 to the end of 2026
covered technical assistance service for
both the mica and magic missiles.
In recent month taiwan has increased its
defense spending, fearing the mainland
china will soon launch a full-scale
invasion. According to the local media
reports taiwan's cabinet is proposing to
increase the military budget this year
to develop and buy modern hardware, as
chinese ships and aircraft continue to
encroach on the island's waters and
airspace, keeping alive fears of a strike.
It reported that taiwan legislators have
begun evaluating the cabinet's request
to spend
17.07 billion dollars this year for
equipment such as fighter planes, guided
missiles and drones. Of that total 1.45
billion dollars is for special purposes
including fighter jets and 2.13 billion
dollars is for unspecified expenses. Taiwan ruling party-dominated parliament
or legislative yuan is expected to
review and approve the budget by the
month's end.
Military budget hikes are nothing new
for taiwan. this one would be a 5.6
increase over the 2021 allocation and
come to the usual 2.3 of gross domestic
product. The new budget is in response to
a surge in chinese activity in or near
the taiwanese air defense identification
zone since mid-2020. Chinese military planes pass through a
corner of taiwan's zone monday, wednesday
and friday of the week beginning august
last year for example.
The national
defense ministry said through a social
media channel four flew on friday and in
the past as many as 28 planes have
traveled the same path in a single day. China and taiwan have been separately
ruled since the chinese civil war of the
1940s when Chiang Kai-Shek nationalist
party retreated to the island after
losing the mainland to Mao Zedong's
communists. China still claims
sovereignty over taiwan and has not
renounced the use of force to capture.
About 80 percent of taiwanese have told
government opinion surveys since 2019
they oppose unifying with china and
today's taiwan president Tsai ing-wen takes
a guarded view of any engagement with
beijing. The positive aspect is that there's an
increase in the budget of spending in
defense, said Sean Soo an independent
political analyst in taiwan.
On the downside he said the question of
whether it's enough or not is one which
no one can truly answer unless there's
an actual war. According to the taiwan's
government-funded central news agency if
taiwan's parliament accepts the budget
as submitted the country's air force
will spend some of the money through
2025 on four us-designed sea guardian
drones that can increase its day-night
surveillance capability and to equip its
existing F-16s with precision missiles.
The mirage 2000
is considered taiwan's least capable
class of fighter jet and suffers from
excessive operational costs. A very high crash rate cracks in the
airframe and other issues related to a
low manufacturing quality. The aircraft
were manufactured in france and
purchased in the 1990s. Reportedly the new deals with france
also includes fixing all the issue that
taiwanese air force had with the jets.
Taiwanese F-16A Cinquo and even older F-5E Fighters have proven far more
reliable and all have the benefit of
access to more modern classes of
munitions such as the Aim-120CM ROB for
the F-16 and the sky sword 2 for the Cinquo and F-5. The mirage's much shorter
range french-built mica missiles leaves
that the significant range disadvantage
against both other taiwanese classes of
fighters as well as those in chinese
service across the taiwan street. Taiwan's air force has repeatedly
indicated that it intends to retire the
mirage 2000. However with the new deal
has been announced for sure those
mirages will remain in taiwan's skies
for a few more years.
