#rocaf

Photo series #16

FOX-2, FOX-2! 

Yes, today the photo series is going to be about one of the most successful and also one of the oldest air-to-air missiles, this is the Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder.

Developed by the US Navy during the 1950s, the Sidewinder entered service in 1956 and is still in operation today after numerous variants and upgrades, the latest one being the X variant, most of them use infrared homing for guidance.

The AIM-9X can be used as both air-to-air and surface-to-air missile being multi-mission capable, it can be equipped in fighters such as the F-15, F-16, F-22, in attackers and strike fighters like the A-10 and F-35, in helicopters such as the AH-1Z Viper and in U.S. Army’s ground-based multi-mission launcher.

During it’s combat debut in 1958 at the Taiwan Straits, ROCAF (Republic Of China Air Force) F-86 Sabres engaged PLAAF (People’s Liberation Army Air Force) Mig-17s, a AIM-9B failed to detonate and was lodged in the airframe of the Mig, both the plane and the missile landed safely but this allowed Soviet engineers to capture and reverse-engineer the Sidewinder which later led to the manufacturing of the Vympel K-13/R-3S missile, NATO reporting name AA-2 Atoll, the K-13 entered service with Soviet Air Forces in 1961. An interesting fact about all of this is that in 1972, the Finnish Air Force started using the AIM-9P Sidewinders in their Saab 35 Draken fighters but they already operated the Atoll in their Mig-21s, the missiles were so similar that they made tests using Atolls in the Drakens and Sidewinders in the Migs.

That’s it for this photo series, as always, if you have any suggestions or want to send any pictures for future photo series, don’t be shy, send them to me and i’ll upload them! 

Mirage 2000, RoCAF (Taiwan Air Force)

Mirage 2000, RoCAF (Taiwan Air Force)

F-CK-1 Ching-Kuo, RoCAF (Taiwan Air Force)

The routines are the most significant they’ve been in five years.

On Wednesday, the Taiwanese armed forces held its largest are living-fire coastal drills in five many years. The Republic of China Air Drive (ROCAF) and Republic of China Navy (ROCN) held joint air-sea exercise routines off Taiwan’s jap coast as aspect of the once-a-year Han Kuang physical exercises.

As a lot of as 22 ROCAF plane and 22 ROCN ships participated in the workout routines, which ended up developed to simulate functions from an adversary pressure attempting to push towards Taiwan from the sea and air in the Taiwan Strait. Taipei’s physical exercises are intended to repel attack by the mainland.

In accordance to Taiwan’s Central News Company, ROCN ships taking part in the exercise routines provided the two decommissioned U.S. Navy Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates that experienced been acquired by Taiwan in 2017.

Taking pleasure in this posting? Click in this article to subscribe for total entry. Just $5 a thirty day period.

“The warships bundled two Oliver Hazard Perry-course frigates, La Fayette-class frigates, Ching Chiang-course patrol ships, Tuo Chiang-class corvettes and Kuang Hua-course missile boats, whilst warplanes like F-16s, Mirage 2000s and indigenous protection fighter jets were also dispatched to choose portion in the joint exercising,” a ministry official stated, in accordance to the South China Early morning Publish. The ROCN operates other surface combatant vessels, together with Kidd-course destroyers.

Wednesday’s joint workout routines concerned the use of anti-air, anti-ship, and anti-submarine weapons. Taiwan operates a huge array of imported and indigenous missiles.

The Taiwanese armed forces utilizes a “resolute deference” method comprising capabilities across various domains, with the objective of “delivering deterrence and defense to preserve the enemy at bay,” in accordance to its 2017 Quadrennial Protection Overview.

“With a emphasis on integrating joint operational abilities, the ROC Armed Forces carries on to enhance its joint operational instruction, set up precise logistic capabilities, enact plan reforms for mobilizing reservists, and make a warrior spirit in the force, in get to be certain prosperous accomplishment of protection missions for our nation,” the Evaluate had famous, underscoring the great importance of joint functions.

A recent U.S. Division of Defense evaluation of China’s army capabilities and technique noted that “Although China advocates for peaceful unification with Taiwan, China has under no circumstances renounced the use of armed forces power, and continues to acquire and deploy advanced armed service abilities required for a potential army campaign.”

The report also expressed issue that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s reform considering that 2015 has enhanced its means to maintain joint operations by way of the new theater commands. The Jap Theater Command would engage in the major position in any potential contingency throughout the Taiwan Strait.

Due to the fact 2016, relations between the mainland and Taiwan have deteriorated.

The post Taiwan Stages Joint Air-Sea Live Fire Exercises appeared first on Defence Online.

Taiwan is taking into consideration procuring up to 66 F-16 Viper fighter jets from the United States.

Taiwan is thinking of procuring an not known range of U.S-manufactured fighter jets to increase its defense abilities vis-à-vis the People’s Republic of China, the country’s Ministry of Countrywide Protection declared last week.

The ministry requested fighter jets from the United states to “demonstrate our willpower and potential to defend ourselves,” according to Deputy Defense Minister Shen Yi-ming.

The U.S. has not officially responded to the ask for and the ministry neither specified an specific variety of aircraft to be procured nor the product. A ministry spokesperson did not rule out for the federal government to as soon as additional ask for the F-35B, the U.S. Marine Corps’ shorter acquire-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of Lockheed Martin’s supersonic fifth-generation fighter jet.

Enjoying this posting? Click on below to subscribe for entire obtain. Just $5 a thirty day period.

According to unconfirmed Taiwanese media stories, the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) experienced expressed interest in procuring up to 66 Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon Viper (V) Block 70 multirole combat aircraft. F-16V fighters are geared up with an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar procedure, upgraded avionics, and a large-volume, high-speed data bus, among the other matters.

Notably, Taiwan is in the approach of upgrading its F-16 A/B fleet to the F-16V variant. The first four retrofitted F-16A/B fighters, upgraded by Taiwan’s condition-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), have been handed around to ROCAF at an airbase in Chiayi county in southwestern Taiwan in October 2018.

The program, codenamed Phoenix Growing Challenge, was introduced in 2016 with the purpose of upgrading 144 ROCAF A/B Combating Falcon overcome plane to the F-16V configuration by 2023. AIDC is Lockheed Martin’s regional job associate. Overall charge for the Phoenix Mounting Task is approximated at around $5.3 billion. As I claimed very last calendar year:

At first, the very first upgraded batch of F-16Vs was to consist of 10 plane. Even so, delays in software screening in the United States lessened the quantity to four. About 25 to 28 aircraft are predicted to go through modernization each individual 12 months right up until 2023. The remaining a few aircraft of the initial batch are slated for shipping and delivery by the conclusion of 2018. Two ROCAF F-16 A/Bs had been currently upgraded to the F-16V common in the United States. In October 2015, the to start with of these upgraded ROCAF F-16 fighter jet in its V configuration carried out its maiden flight in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Phoenix Increasing Job also foresees the procurement of added outside of-visual-assortment (BVR) air-to-air missiles form the U.S., as well as domestically-generated weapons techniques this sort of as the shortly to be operationalized Sky Sword II medium-assortment air-to-air missile 空劍二飛彈 or Sky Sword.

“Taiwan’s F-16 fleet is geared up with the Aim-9 Sidewinder, a brief-range air-to-air missile and the [BVR] Aim-120 Superior Medium-Variety Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM,” I wrote very last calendar year.  “Of the latter, Taiwan has a stockpile of a tiny about 300, which yields a ratio of all around 2 AMRAAMs for each F-16.”

ROCAF fighter jets are highly vulnerable to destruction on the floor by People’s Liberation Army Air Pressure (PLAAF) aircraft or missiles in the party of a conflict. As I described previously, offered Taipei’s somewhat modest protection expenditures, it might be better to commit in other weapons programs to militarily deter Beijing (See: “Why Promoting F-35s to Taiwan Is a Awful Idea”).

The post Taiwan Mulls F-16 Viper Fighter Purchase From the US appeared first on Defence Online.