Source: Taiwan Strait Network The Taiwan Air Force disclosed for the first time the footage of the "Ten Thousand Sword Bomb" live ammunition mount and the simultaneous maintenance of 10 fighter aircraft. Taiwan Strait Network reported on February 8 (Straits Herald reporter Wu She

Source: Taiwan Strait Network

For the first time, the Taiwan Air Force disclosed the footage of the "Ten Thousand Sword Bomb" live ammunition mount and the simultaneous maintenance of 10 fighter jets

Taiwan Strait Network, February 8 (Strait Herald reporter Wu Shenglin intern Hou Xiaochenwen/Internet picture) This Spring Festival, Which unit of the Taiwan Air Force is the busiest and most stressed? I'm afraid it can be regarded as the "First Tactical Fighter Wing" stationed at the Tainan base.

In the face of the normalization of the People's Liberation Army's Taiwan patrols, this Taiwanese military unit responsible for "guarding Taiwan's southwest airspace" has been conducting "Spring Festival Enhanced Combat Readiness" drills since January 26. In order to embolden themselves, the "Ten Thousand Sword Ammunition" live ammunition mounting screen was also released for the first time during the exercise. The green media media also cooperated with the boast and called it the "big killer weapon in the Taiwan Strait". How did

Tainan base develop? What tasks does it perform in the Taiwan military? In this issue we will reveal the secrets of this base.

1The US military once deployed nuclear bombs here

The route to Xiamen was opened very early

The most important facility of the Tainan Air Force Base is Tainan Airport. This airport is close to the southern district of Tainan City and the northern end of Kaohsiung City . It is only 6 kilometers from Tainan Station in the center of Tainan. It is the largest airport in the Yunnan-Jiangnan region.

During the Japanese occupation, there were a total of three airports in Tainan: the first one is the current Tainan Airport, completed in 1936, located in Dayenli, South District, Tainan City; the second and third ones are located in today's Yongkang District, Tainan City and Quy Nhon District . The airport in Yongkang District was abolished in 1947. The airport in Qui Nhon District is now called Nanbao Airport and houses the Army Flight Training Command under the jurisdiction of the Taiwan Army Aviation Special Warfare Command.

Tainan Airport was originally a purely civilian airport. After its completion, it was requisitioned by the Japanese army in 1940 and then served the Japanese Naval Air Force. Since then, it has been covered with a strong military color. On October 1, 1941, the Japanese army established the Tainan Naval Air Force. Japanese fighter planes often took off from Tainan to participate in battles in the Philippines. In the late stages of World War II, the Tainan base naturally became an important bombing target for the US military.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Tainan Airport and Taipei Songshan Airport became the only two civilian airports in Taiwan. Before the Kuomintang's defeat in Taiwan, Tainan Airport had routes to Xiamen and Shantou.

However, Tainan Airport mainly serves as a military base. From 1959 to 1967, the U.S. Air Force's 510th Tactical Fighter Squadron was stationed at Tainan Airport, and was later replaced by the U.S. Air Force's 523rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, which used the airport to participate in the Vietnam War. Later declassified information showed that in response to cross-strait tensions, the US military once deployed nuclear bombs at Tainan Airport.

2 The oldest fighter wing is stationed with 70 "Ching-Kuo" fighter aircraft.

Today, Tainan Airport assumes a dual-use role both military and civilian. The station is managed by the Taiwan military, including the military Tainan Base and the civilian Tainan Air Station. .

In terms of civil aviation, after Kaohsiung International Airport was put into operation on July 1, 1965, Tainan Airport no longer served as an auxiliary airport for international routes, and only had intra-island routes. Its heyday was in 1997, when it carried nearly 2.5 million passengers throughout the year, with routes to Taipei, Hualien, Taitung, Magong and Kinmen. However, as the Taiwan Railways' railway network around the island has been fully constructed, especially after the high-speed rail from Taipei to Kaohsiung opened in 2007, the aviation industry on the west coast of Taiwan has completely lost its competitiveness. By 2013, the scheduled flights from Tainan Airport were only Penghu, Kinmen and Taiwan. The annual carrying capacity of the two routes is only one-ninth of its heyday. Tainan Airport is currently one of the airports serving cross-strait direct flights.

In terms of military use, Tainan Airport is stationed with the oldest fighter wing of the Taiwan Air Force - the "1st Tactical Fighter Wing" (formerly the 443rd Tactical Fighter Wing). The Taiwan military currently has 126 IDF "Ching-Kuo" fighters. Except for the 56 aircraft deployed by the Third Wing of Qingquangang in Taichung, the remaining 70 aircraft are stationed in the First Wing of Tainan.

Taiwan Air Force The predecessor of the "First Tactical Fighter Wing" was the "First Air Force Wing" of the Kuomintang authority that was directly assisted by the US Air Force and restructured. It was first established in Wuhan, and its units participated in the Anti-Japanese War.In addition to being stationed at the Tainan base, this unit now also rotates with the "Third Regiment" in Taichung to the "Tianju Unit" stationed at the Magong Base in Penghu.

Since the Tainan base was once one of the important maintenance bases for the transfer of US military aircraft during the Vietnam War, the current Tainan base is also the headquarters of Taiwan's aircraft maintenance company "AirAsia", with a maintenance base area of ​​approximately 5.57 square kilometers. Last month, in order to demonstrate its fighter aircraft maintenance capabilities, the Taiwan military also released footage of 10 fighter aircraft being repaired together.

In addition, the Tainan base is also stationed with the First Squadron of the Third Brigade of the Air Service Corps, which is affiliated with the "Ministry of the Interior" of the Taiwan authorities. It is equipped with AS365 and UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters and is responsible for disaster relief, rescue, rescue and observation of land, sea and air in southern Taiwan. reconnaissance, transportation and other tasks.

3 The People's Liberation Army patrols Taiwan's southwest airspace and the Taiwan Air Force's 1st Wing is exhausted.

The Taiwan Air Force currently has four tactical fighter wings, and the 1st Wing is the southernmost fighter unit. Its main task is to "defend Taiwan's southwest airspace."

In the past year, Taiwan’s southwest airspace has been patrolled the most by PLA fighter planes, ranging from twenty days to full duty every month. In order to carry out the so-called "warning" of the People's Liberation Army fighter planes, the First Wing of the Taiwan Air Force was exhausted.

The Taiwan military once revealed that the first wing's allotted flight time last year was achieved at a rate of 128%, and half of the time was spent on "monitoring and driving away" PLA military aircraft. Some Taiwanese netizens said that since July and August last year, the sound of fighter jets taking off from Tainan Airport could be heard at any time, whether it was daytime, evening, or late at night; some netizens said that the People's Liberation Army has been patrolling near the "central line of the strait" and southwestern Tainan. In the airspace, this "war of attrition" almost brought down the First Wing of the Taiwan Air Force. In September last year, Taiwanese media also broke the news that two "Ching-Kuo" fighter jets were "outflanked" by six PLA fighter jets.

Since the beginning of the new year in 2021, the frequency of patrols in Taiwan's southwest airspace by the People's Liberation Army has not decreased. On January 23 and 24, it dispatched more than 28 combat aircraft of various types. In order to build up its momentum, the Taiwan Air Force has been conducting the "Spring Festival Enhanced Combat Readiness" drill non-stop since January 26. The drill items include "Simulated Wartime Emergency Formation Takeoff and Landing", "Mission Tips", "Wanjian Bomb Potential Mounting", "IDF Jingguo Fighter Maintenance Operations" etc.

What is different from previous drills is that this time the Taiwan military took the initiative to allow the Taiwanese media to report it in a high-profile manner. In addition to declaring that "it is required that after the IDF fighter aircraft at the Tainan base receive an emergency take-off order, the flight officers must complete the procedures from dressing, boarding to taking off from the ground." In addition to "completed within 5 minutes", the live ammunition mounting screen of "Ten Thousand Sword Bombs" was also released for the first time. Li Qingxi, director of political warfare of the Taiwan Air Force's 1st Wing, also said that the "Wanjian bomb" is a long-range cluster bomb that can carry out scattershot attacks on the ground and the sea. It is a suppressive weapon in a large area. Green media advocates that the "Ten Thousand Sword Bomb" can destroy and paralyze airports in Fujian, Guangdong and other places.

However, mainland military expert Song Zhongping once said that the carrier of the "Wanjian Bomb" is the "Ching-Kuo" fighter plane. If a war breaks out across the Taiwan Strait, air supremacy will be completely controlled by the People's Liberation Army. Taiwan's aircraft will not be able to take off from the airport at all. The People's Liberation Army It has enough capability to destroy fighter planes carrying "Wanjian Bomb" over the airport.