90 F-16s would be a potent strike force
Taiwan has signed a 62-billion-dollar deal to purchase F-16 fighter jets from the United States. The deal is the biggest weapons sale to have been concluded between Washington and Taipei and is sure to further increase the already extremely high tensions with China.
Under the deal, which was announced by the Pentagon last Friday, the US has agreed to sell 90 F-16 fighter jets from US-based aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin to Taiwan over a span of about 10 years.
The self-ruled island, which China considers part of its territory, obtained the green light from Washington last year to buy 66 new generation F-16s to modernize its air force, however no agreement was concluded at the time.
The deal marks the first time since 1992 that advanced fighter jets have been sold to Taiwan and is expected to infuriate China, which has repeatedly warned Washington against selling advanced weaponry to Taipei.
Following media reports of the agreement last year, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry called on the US to “refrain” from selling the “fighter jets to Taiwan and stop arms sales to and military contact with Taiwan.”
“Otherwise, the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the US will have to bear all the consequences.”
China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan under the “One China” policy, and most countries recognize that sovereignty, saying the island is part of China’s territory awaiting reunification.
The US also recognizes Chinese sovereignty over the island but at the same time maintains relations with Taipei as a bargaining chip in its geopolitical rivalry with Beijing.
Although Washington has no diplomatic relations with Taipei by law, it is the island’s largest weapons supplier and has been a consistent supporter of Taiwan’s secessionist-minded president Tsai Ing-wen.
Tsai has rejected Beijing’s stance that Taiwan is part of “One China” and instead views the island as “already independent.”
Washington also regularly conducts military patrols and exercises around the self-governed island, including regular over flights and sailing its warships through the strategic Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from China.
Relations between the United States and China have hit the lowest level in decades under US President Donald Trump. The two countries are at loggerheads over a range of issues, including trade, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, the US navy said in a statement that a strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan had conducted military exercises in the South China Sea. According to the statement, the strike group carried out flight operations as well as high-end maritime stability operations and drills at the disputed sea. LINK
China does not rule out the use of force to bring the island under its full control, and if Taiwan and the US take their relations and joint military cooperation much further China may well consider that it has no choice but to use force to occupy the island.
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Don’t worry, they’re just for democracy, freedom, human rights and the free market. See Palestine, with enough F16s, you’re even “free” to set up postmodern concentration camps without the UN or global Ziocorporate regimes even batting an eye about it.
90 F16s won t make any difference. On a political level it demonstrates even more the US has decided to attack China in a pure cold war ideology.
I’d wait for them to be delivered then destroy them and the base that supports them.
Arming a renegade province of mainland China is simply just not on anymore.
at rip off prices. US is a merchant of death.
A bit of a rip off isnt it. They sold them the jets more expensive than the Flop-35.
Could be a misstatement in the article;. “A $62 billion figure announced by the Pentagon on Friday is the upper limit of numerous contracts if all potential foreign customers placed their maximum desired number over the decade.” So this would be for a total for 400 F16’s sold over a decade, including 90 for morocco ?
Could be. Or its simply a rip off. Japan bought Flop-35s for $300million a piece… Eventho the pricelist is at a $100million…
I also found this news dated today: :) “In addition to Taiwan, Morocco is buying 24 F-16s jets in the first tranche of 90 aircraft that the Pentagon said was valued at $4.9 billion, the Times reported.”
Sounds as fantastic as the secret Russian bases from Cuba. It must be true.
Truth hurts, try to handle it…
https://media3.giphy.com/media/uzXtZhiCYpuSY/giphy.gif
meaning what?
Eat more bacon.
Isn’t that Israel pricing ?
We could say that :)
$62 billion for 90 F-16s makes each one cost $688 million. Even when factoring in weapons, spares and training that’s insanely expensive for any fighter jet, especially one that’s supposed to be ‘affordable’.
And to think Taiwan is losing billions due to US sanctions preventing TSMC from making semiconductor sales to China.
Taiwan will go broke buying jets that will never be used while losing revenue from their biggest customer.
Even worst the sanctions are going to cede large portions of the semiconductor industry to the mainland. Chinese firms have already hired away over 3,000 engineers from Taiwan. TSMC recently lost over 100 top people with mainland companies offering 2.5 times their current salaries.
One thing about China: When they decide they want to master a technology, nothing gets in their way. They tend to throw all their energy into it and eventually master the tech.
Currently they can’t manufacture 7 – 3 nm chips but then they’ve never needed to. Once they do, they’ll have no need for Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and TSMC – that whole market will end up with China – Bye bye Taiwan because that’s the only thing that keeps Taiwan floating – hi tech chip fabrication.
Taiwan better teach their pilots to make kamikaze attacks. Because even if these manages liftoff, there wont be anything to return to. lol
IIRC, someone here talked about Israel’s surplus of F-16. It’s possible that some of those fighters could be redirected to Taiwan.
since US has no economy and produces nothing except toilet paper and weapons, they give money to colonies to purchase ineffective US weapons
The weapons are largely manufactured components in other countries, then imported to US for assembly. There is no real war production capability in US today. When NATO countries reject their traditional suppliers military hardware, and purchase Russian instead, one knows there’s problems between allies. US had two major customer’s reject F-35 as junk, yanked Turkey’s order for these planes, that I know of. Sales of Patriot missile defense systems is down due to the poor performance, that was never too good to start with.
Won’t make a difference. China wins in every scenario:
https://southfront.org/rand-corporation-and-pentagon-simulate-us-china-war-over-taiwan-china-wins-every-time/
This amounts to an unfortunate transfer of wealth to the US, and increases the pressure on China to resolve this situation. I’m sure a few hands in Taiwan gain a lot from this, while the taxpayers get a lot poorer…
My prediction: When mainland China finally re-absorbs Taiwan, these F-16s will be waiting in near brand-new condition for the PLA to test drive.
Won’t happen.
China can take over Taiwan in less than an hour.
I keep telling people that but the idiots won’t listen.
90 units to be reverse engineered for Mainland China. Might as well ship them straight to Beijing.
Since China has signed a deal with Iran, I think it’s time we should also sign a deal with Taiwan. We can give them AD systems and other armaments which have proven battle experience to counter China.
Half the Taiwanese are infiltrators from the mainland.
They’ll be very interested in your AD systems and other armaments.