The U.S. government has long maintained a "no reunification, no independence, no force" attitude towards cross-strait relations. However, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the then U.S. President Trump began to play the "Taiwan card" crazily, trying to Continue to strengthen the strategy of "using Taiwan to contain China". At the same time, after Tsai Ing-wen entered her second term, Taiwan began to frantically challenge "rejecting reunification with force" and spared no effort in purchasing weapons and equipment from the United States. U.S. arms sales to Taiwan in 2020 have set a new historical record.
Recently, Taiwan and the United States have once again finalized a purchase plan for the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled artillery. According to the plan, Taiwan was originally prepared to purchase 100 M109A6 Paladin self-propelled artillery. However, due to limited funds, Taiwan only ordered 40 units. , according to the clamor of the Taiwanese media, these artillery can be used to intercept the People's Liberation Army's landing operations, and are powerful in precise strikes. Even if there are only 40, they are powerful enough.
While purchasing the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled artillery, Taiwan is also trying to purchase the AGM-158 stealth cruise missile. This missile is also the same model mounted on American nuclear bombers. The B-1B bomber can complete 24 missiles at a time. AGM-158C cruise missile mount, and the F-16 fighter can mount two AGM-158 missiles at one time. Currently, the Polish Air Force has mounted this type of weapon on its F-16 fighter jet, but It can be clearly seen that the United States still has some scruples after receiving the purchase plan from Taiwan, and has even been able to avoid it many times.
According to the news learned by Global Hotspot, after F-16 fighter jets are equipped with AGM-158 missiles, these missiles can complete the attack on targets of about 360 kilometers. Compared with other weapons, this missile has quite obvious advantages. The nature of the attack is that although the maximum range of the Harpoon anti-ship missile exported by the United States to Taiwan has exceeded the Taiwan Strait , this weapon can already be defined as a defensive weapon, and the AGM-158 missile, which is the same model as the nuclear bomber, regardless of There is no way it can be used as a defensive weapon.
Of course, while the US military is concerned about political influence, it is also worried about the leakage of technology. As a stealth cruise missile, if mainland China can obtain similar technology and equip it under the J-10 fighter , then the output strength will definitely be Stronger than the F-16 fighter jet.
Taiwan has begun upgrading existing F-16 fighter jets in batches. The upgrade project is mainly to extend their life and upgrade them to the F-16V version. Currently, most of the aircraft that have been upgraded are deployed at the Hualien base. It is also used to challenge the People's Liberation Army's Taiwan patrol flights in the southwest airspace. Although this is the most powerful fighter in Taiwan, it is actually not as powerful as the J-10C fighter . Text/Iris
