The sale of 66 advanced F-16s will not exactly address the aerial imbalance across the Taiwan Strait, but it would nonetheless improve the situation slightly, especially given the age of the F-5s that they would replace.
This tracks what I wrote about a week ago:
But more broadly, the issue of air power isn't just the planes. Taiwan needs good pilots. Taiwan needs good maintenance to keep sortie rates up. Taiwan needs hardened aircraft shelters and capabilities to rapidly repair runways. Taiwan needs radars and air defense missiles and command and control capabilities to wage an air campaign. Taiwan needs sufficient ammunition to arm those planes for weeks on end of high intensity combat.
Back to the issue at hand, it is also clear that the sale of even 60 or so newer F-16s won't repair just the narrow issue of Taiwan's aircraft inventory. Nearly 250 of Taiwan's fighter aircraft cannot participate in a sustained manner in an aerial campaign to defend the island.
Taiwan needs a sustained defense build-up to reverse the rate of decline in the years ahead and then start pushing the balance in the air and at sea back towards Taiwan in the decades ahead.
Just getting those F-16s is a start, but much more is needed than even more planes. But a long journey needs that first step, eh?
The Heritage report addresses a number of issues that I've droned on about a lot over the history of this blog. Do read it all, as the saying goes.
UPDATE: Thanks to The View from Taiwan for the link.
