Quote:
Originally Posted by WilliamB
The F-105 is defenitely a mistake, but this leaves Taiwan without any SEAD aircraft until the Mirage 2000 ARM becomes available in June of 1997 (Unit 148). Does anyone know what they were using for the SEAD mission until then?
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Some investigation into the Mirage 2000:
48 x Mirage 2000-5EI Single Seat
12 x Mirage 2000-5DI Trainers
First jet arrived May 1997, next eight arrived October 1998.
Been doing some searching and the Mirages were delivered as pure air to air fighters with no ground attack munitions.
The Command: Modern Air / Naval Operations guys have it with no air to ground weapons.
https://cmano-db.com/aircraft/175/
I believe the current Unit 417 [Mirage 2000] armed with 70mm Hydra Rocket Pods and AP cluster bombs, is a good "compromise" -- Taiwan may not have ordered any high tech air to ground weaponry for their Mirage fleet, but they can still hang "dumb" weapons on them.
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The SIPRI Arms Transfers Database
https://armstransfers.sipri.org/ArmsTransfer/
says that no SEAD missiles were transferred to Taiwan in the timeframe they cover.
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It appears the --FIRST-- ROCAF ARM was the TC-2A developed for the F-CK-1 [Ching-Kuo]; same range [90-100 km] and speed as the AGM-78 Standard ARM, but with a much smaller warhead [22 kg]. Entered service 2014-2015 ish or maybe in 2017 with the F-CK-1C/D Ching Kuo HSIANG ZHAN upgrade program.
The second ROCAF ARM will be 50 x AGM-88B HARMs refurbished to AGM-88F HARM standard ordered in June 2017, with delivery by 2027 for the ROCAF's F-16 Block 70 fleet. Another 100 AGM-88Bs were ordered in March 2023 for the F-16 Block 70 Fleet.
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It kind of does make sense why ROCAF had no SEAD capability until 2014-2017 -- it's not until fairly recently that the PLA(N) actually became a credible SAM threat -- they didn't get Sovremenny DDGs until 1999.
Before that all the PLA(N)'s guided missile ships used the HQ-7 which was based off the French Crotale short range SAM.
Remember, the ROCAF doesn't need to destroy SAM sites on mainland China to win a war; but they do need to sink the PLA(N) to beat an invasion force.