Free Republic

Taiwan is considering new missile tests after a series of failures in a drill this week earned the top brass rare criticism from an irate President Ma Ying-jeou, media and an official said Thursday. Six out of the 19 missiles missed their targets or failed to explode during a live-fire manoeuvre Tuesday, prompting Ma to publicly tell the military that he was "not very satisfied", urging it to practice some more. Although the military insisted the result was acceptable, it now plans to re-test three types of missile that failed during the drill, the Liberty Times said, without citing its...

Taiwan hopes to maintain air operations in the event of a military conflict with China by using vertical and short take-off and landing aircraft. VSTOL fighters would allow Taiwan to maintain fighter operations should Chinese missiles damage the island's military runways, says US-based think-tank the Project 2049 Institute in a report entitled Evolving Aerospace Trends in the Asia Pacific Region. Former US deputy assistant secretary of state Randall Schriver heads the institute. While at the State Department, Schriver was responsible for issues relating to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The report quotes former Taiwanese air force commander Liu Guili as...

Taiwan's military Tuesday lifted the veil on how it would respond to a massive Chinese air attack, showing that the island still takes the risk of war very seriously despite improving ties. Journalists were invited for the first time to a drill simulating aerial assaults on Taiwan's major air bases and testing the military's ability to recover quickly from such a shock. The manoeuvres, staged at a military air base near Hualien city in eastern Taiwan, played out a scenario in which runways were bombed by waves of bombers or missiles from the mainland. "The drill is aimed to test...

The United States allowed a Taiwan military plane to transit its territory for the first time in 30 years, giving the go-ahead without first consulting China, officials and media said Thursday. The cargo plane made a stop inside US territory while carrying relief supplies to quake-ravaged Haiti, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy. "The United States approved Taiwan's request for a cargo plane to land and refuel in US territory in order to reach Haiti as soon as possible," Christopher Kavanagh, an official at the institute, told AFP. When asked if Washington had discussed...

The Obama administration is moving toward possible new arms sales to Taiwan, including design work on diesel-electric submarines, a U.S. State Department official told Reuters on Wednesday. China strongly opposes arms sales to Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a renegade province, as interference in its domestic affairs. New submarines could help challenge any Chinese seaborne assault on the self-governing island, which Beijing reserves the right to take by force. Also progressing toward notification to the U.S. Congress is the sale to Taiwan of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, said Robert Kovac, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for defense trade. In...

Taiwan has carried out its largest-ever missile exercise, less than a fortnight after China showed off advanced ballistic weaponry in a massive National Day parade, local media said Wednesday. The missiles were launched on Tuesday from the secretive and tightly guarded Chiupeng base in southern Taiwan and could strike major Chinese cities, the United Daily News reported. President Ma Ying-jeou, who has been criticised for being too friendly with China, was among the observers of the exercise, the paper said, citing a "reliable military source". The test came after China, which has vowed to take back Taiwan, celebrated 60 years...