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DIA report may not sway US on F-16s
DEFENSE: Air Force officials said their service was not as
decrepit as the report implied, while Washington sources said there is only
limited support for the sale in the Pentagon
By William Lowther and Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTERS , WASHINGTON AND TAIPEI
Wednesday, Feb 24, 2010, Page 1
Despite a major new report by the US¡¦ Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) making
it clear Taiwan¡¦s Air Force is in poor shape, it is by no means certain that
Washington will sell Taipei the 66 advanced F-16C/D fighters it wants, sources
in Washington said.
A White House source said US President Barack Obama had not made up his mind
about the sale.
Weighing heavily against it is a belief that China will object much more
strenuously than it did last month when Washington announced a US$6.4 billion
arms and technology package.
On top of this, there is a powerful Pentagon group that argues in private that
the F-16s would not be enough to significantly tilt the balance of power in the
Taiwan Strait back in Taiwan¡¦s favor.
Speaking on condition of confidentiality, a member of the group said there was
only ¡§limited support¡¨ within the US Defense Department for selling Taiwan the
planes and that he very much doubted a sale would go through.
Meanwhile, John Pike, head of the Global Security think tank in Washington, said
that the new DIA report was only ¡§belaboring the obvious¡¨ and that the Pentagon
had known for years about the poor condition of Taiwan¡¦s Air Force.
He said the administration of former US president George W. Bush had not agreed
to sell the planes and that there was no reason to believe that Obama would
change that policy.
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, said the
unclassified version of the DIA report was ¡§light in substance and content¡¨
because the agency did not want to provide anything that might be materially
useful to the Chinese.
He said the classified version would address more substantial issues and the
very action of producing the report was ¡§extremely useful in driving internal
consideration of Taiwan¡¦s ... unaddressed request¡¨ for the F-16C/Ds.
The unclassified version, ¡§clearly notes the need for Taiwan to replace aging
equipment,¡¨ Hammond-Chambers said.
But without knowing what is contained in the classified version, he said, it was
not possible to know if the US was more likely to sell the planes to Taiwan.
The report, released in Taipei on Monday, said that although Taiwan has nearly
400 combat aircraft in service, ¡§far fewer of these are operationally capable.¡¨
While the Air Force has deteriorated over the past 15 years, Beijing has been
expanding its military on all fronts.
¡§Taiwan has stood still while China very markedly has not,¡¨ Pike said.
Nevertheless, Taiwan¡¦s friends on Capitol Hill are sure to use the report to
press the administration and the Pentagon hard for the F-16C/Ds.
Gerrit van der Wees, a senior political adviser with the Formosan Association
for Public Affairs, said he believed the report would be used as a ¡§building
block¡¨ by those in favor of the sale.
He added that he was ¡§optimistic¡¨ that the Obama administration would approve
the sale of the fighters ¡§within the next few months.¡¨
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday downplayed the impression
of the Air Force given in the report, saying the Air Force was upgrading its
fighter jets as well as continuing to seek procurement of the F-16C/Ds.
Air Force Vice Chief of General Staff Major General Han Geng-sheng (Áú§ó¥Í) told a
press conference that although the Air Force recognized the military balance of
air power across the Taiwan Strait has tipped toward China, it has many programs
to upgrade the capabilities of its fighters.
¡§The Air Force is working to prolong the service life of its F-5 fighters, which
have not reached the end of their operational service life as said in the
report,¡¨ Han said.
He said the upgrading of capabilities of the Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF)
has begun and the military had also completed medium and long-term proposals to
upgrade its Mirage 2000 and F-16A/B jets.
The service must strengthen management of its fighter jets teams and its
personnel before procuring next-generation fighters, Han said.
He said the Air Force would continue to seek procurement of F-16C/Ds as well as
the most advanced fighter jets, with short distance take off and landing,
advanced air-to-air attack and stealth capabilities.
Ministry spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue (¸·«ä¯ª) called on the US to continue to
sell Taiwan arms in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act.
During a question-and-answer session with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (¿c¨q¿P) at the legislature yesterday, Premier Wu Den-yih
(§d´°¸q) said Taiwan would not give up its efforts to buy the F-16C/Ds.
¡§The imbalance of cross-strait military capabilities started to change many
years ago. It is very difficult for us to overturn the situation by spending a
large amount of money procuring large amounts of military equipment in a short
period of time. Spending the money does not live up to the public¡¦s interest,
either,¡¨ Wu said.
The government needs to purchase ¡§necessary, practical and reasonably priced¡¨
equipment, he said.
¡§The US has not agreed to the sale of F-16C/D fighter jets and submarines, but
we are still negotiating ... we will not give up on the F-16C/Ds fighters and
submarines because they are important to us,¡¨ he said.
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