Does Taiwan Need F-35s?

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan is reportedly interested in acquiring as many as 60 advanced F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. The jet is one of the most expensive aircraft in the world, but does Taiwan really need them?

Transcript

00:00David, I want to first start off with this F-35, you know, U.S. made, world's most advanced

00:04fighter jet that Taiwan is looking to procure, according to this report from the Financial

00:08Times.

00:09Is this a system that Taiwan needs?

00:10Well, to be blunt, the F-35 is not what Taiwan needs.

00:15It's in the midst of upgrading its F-16 fleet right now, which will give it a highly capable

00:20aircraft.

00:21But I think regardless of where you stand on F-16 versus F-35 and where the Taiwan Air

00:27Force should be, you know, most observers who look at this don't think that Taiwan's

00:31limited resources should go there.

00:34These play a limited role in the gray zone, in meeting the challenges from the PLA Air

00:39Force and the Air Defense Identification Zone.

00:42But once the balloon goes up and a war starts, very few, if any, analysts believe that this

00:48war will be decided in the air and in the skies above and around Taiwan.

00:53So if you're looking at the F-35, it's an incredibly expensive platform.

00:57It's an exquisite high-end platform, and you have to ask yourself whether or not those

01:02resources are much better spent on missiles, mines, drones, and frankly, civil defense

01:08efforts as well.

01:09And I think the answer resoundingly is yes.

01:13One of the reasons for Taiwan looking to spend so big on this arms sale, according to this

01:18report, is that it wants to prove to the next administration that it is serious about its

01:22defense.

01:23What do you make of that reasoning?

01:24Yes.

01:25And here I would say two things.

01:27Number one, clearly Taiwan has read what President-elect Trump has said about Taiwan.

01:34And that is that Taiwan doesn't give us anything.

01:38The United States is no different than an insurance company.

01:41And essentially, Taiwan should pay the United States for defense, whatever that means.

01:46And so Taiwan and the national security establishment on the island could interpret that as meaning,

01:52well, if there are large arms sales to Taiwan, $10, $15 billion plus, maybe that's what Trump

01:59wants and what he means when he says pay the United States for defense.

02:04And so maybe leaders in Taipei believe that that is a down payment on American support

02:09and American defense.

02:11The second thing that I would say is that I think that there's also a view in Taiwan

02:16that basically if you're a tier A ally of the United States, you get F-35s.

02:21And if you don't get F-35s, you're in a tier below.

02:24So Taiwan looks at Israel with F-35s.

02:28It looks at NATO partners with F-35s.

02:30And some in Taiwan say, well, why don't we have that as well?

02:34Because we should be considered in that tier of U.S. allies and partners.

02:40And so I think that that's also driving it.

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