F-15EX Eagle II: the fighter plane Taiwan needs?

What you need to know: The sale of the F-15EX Eagle II to the Taiwan Air Force would modernize its capabilities against China’s advanced military while strengthening interoperability with the United States and its regional allies such as Japan, Korea South and Singapore.

– Although the F-15EX is not a stealth fighter, pairing it with potential F-35 sales would strengthen Taiwan’s defensive position against China’s fifth-generation J-20 fighters and potential sixth-generation H-20 bomber generation.

– While opponents cite concerns about Beijing’s reaction and the One-China policy, supporters argue that support for Taiwan, a democratic ally, and strengthening the regional security coalition outweigh these risks.

Should Taiwan get the F-15EX Eagle II?

Controversial and controversial question: Should the United States of America sell the F-15EX Eagle II, Boeing’s improved 4.5 generation upgrade of the two-seater to the older McDonnell F-15E Strike Eagle, to the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF), i.e. the Taiwanese Air Force?

My unapologetic, equally controversial and hard-hitting response: to hell with yes, they should do it!

A short version of why: modernize their combat aircraft fleet and better enable them to resist outright aggression from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), i.e. mainland China; increase interoperability with other U.S. military allies in the Indo-Pacific region; and to turn the nose not only at Beijing, but also at all its apologists of the “Chinese lobby” and its supporters of appeasement within our borders. Now to elaborate…

Upgrading Taiwan’s current fighter jet fleet

Taiwan’s current fleet of combat aircraft is, for the most part, fairly well equipped technologically, if not numerically, to handle the fourth generation of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and older combat such as the J-15, the J-11. , and the J-7/F-7, a copy of the older Soviet-designed MiG-21 “Fishbed”, as well as older bombers like the H-6.

But against the PRC’s fifth-generation stealth fighters like the Chengdu J-20 Weilong, NATO reporting name “Fagin” and the future Shenyang J-35 (aka JC-31 Gyrfalcon), not to mention the Red China’s sixth generation H potential. -20 bomber, not so much.

Mind you, the Eagle II, as a 4.5 generation fighter as opposed to a true stealth fighter, still wouldn’t put the ROCAF on equal footing with the PLAAF’s stealth warplanes… but what if an Eagle II sale were to be combined with a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II sale, then these two airframes would form a fantastic tandem and mutually reinforcing force multiplier, just like in the Army example. Israeli air.

According to the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft (WDMMA), the ROCAF has the following warbirds in the following numbers and ages:

-Lockheed Martin F-16A/V Fighting Falcon; quantity 115 cells, with sixty-six other vintage 2015 V variants, AKA the “Viper” on order.

– Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) F-CK-1C Ching-kuo AKA the Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF), quantity 103 cells; of the 1989 vintage, it is the only combat aircraft produced locally in Taiwan.

-Dassault Mirage 2000 -5EI; quantity forty-four cells; from the 1978 vintage, which makes the term “2000” a bit abusive.

-Northrop F/RF-5E Tiger II, aka the Freedom Fighter; quantity twenty-five cells; from the 1972 vintage and therefore the oldest (and at least obsolete) warbird in the ROCAF fighter arsenal.

NOTE: I am focusing specifically on the Taiwanese Air Force here because although the Republic of China Naval Aviation Command (ROCNAC) has fixed-wing aircraft, none of them have is a combat aircraft, the ROCN uses the Lockheed P-3 Orion for sealift. patrol and the EP-3 Aries II variant for signal recognition.

Interoperability with the United States and other regional allies

In addition to the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the following armies in the Ino-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) region already use a variant of the Eagle jet:

-Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF); F-15SG, an improved and modified F-15E under another name; quantity forty cells

-Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF); F-15J “Eagle of Peace”; quantity 155 cells

-Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF), i.e. the South Korean Air Force; F-15K “Slam Eagle” variant of the Strike Eagle; quantity fifty-nine specimens

Given the likelihood that a war with China would, for all intents and purposes, result in World War III, drawing a multinational anti-PRC coalition into the conflict, it would make sense to give the ROCAF at least some degree of interoperability with the United States. Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

Adjust the nose of the PRC

Chinese lobbyists and appeasement advocates will complain and bleat like the sheep they are, claiming that supplying F-15EXs and F-35s to Taipei would upset Beijing, worsen already strained and acrimonious Sino-US relations and would violate the spirit of China. of the long-standing US “One China” policy.

To which I retort, “And what exactly is the damn problem with that?”

Despite the intentionally nebulous strategic ambiguity of the One China policy, the events of the current and previous decades should make clear to any American citizen with at least half a brain that

(1) Taipei is our friend and ally

(2) Beijing is an unofficial but universally understood American rival.

We are talking about a Chinese communist tyranny which, on top of all its acts of aggression against our regional allies, not only Taiwan, but also India, Japan and the Philippines.

This doesn’t even take into account the bloodthirsty totalitarianism that Xi Jinping and his cronies are inflicting on his citizens, especially the Uyghurs, Falun Gong and Chinese Christians.

So, if selling Eagle IIs and Lightning IIs to Taiwan angered China, then Glory to Hallelujah, may the congregation say, “Amen!”

About the author:

Christian D. Orr is a senior defense editor at the National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments in Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan , in Germany and at the Pentagon). Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and a master’s degree in intelligence studies (concentration in terrorism studies) from the American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber ​​Security, and Simple Flying. Finally, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (US).

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