Republic of China Surging Budget For Air Fleet Modernisation: New AEW&C ‘Flying Radars’ Needed

Multiple sources in Taipei have reported that the budget for the Republic of China Armed Forces for the next fiscal year set to reach over $26.5 billion, or over 3 percent of the enclave’s gross domestic product, with legislator for the Guomindang party Lin Pei-hsiang stating that this would focus on financing substantive improvements to national defence capabilities. Lin was among several to highlight that while the allocation of funds for the procurement of new fighter aircraft was under consideration, it was important to pay attention to training standards rather than solely on the quantities of aircraft, and to consider the prior issues of serious delays to deliveries of fighters previously ordered. He particularly highlighted major delays to the delivery of F-16 Block 70/72 fighters, questioning how the costs to the defence ministry should be calculated and recovered, and how training of pilots for possible new fighters purchased should be arranged. 

Aside from the issue of fighter procurements, the future of the Republic of China Air Force’s fleet of airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) systems has also been brought to question, with the E-2 systems procured from the United States fast ageing and suffering from significant performance limitations. Lin Pei-hsiang pointed out that situational awareness was crucial, and that in light of questions regarding the E-2 fleet’s suitability for modern warfare, it could be advantageous to request that the United States sell a new AEW&C system. AEW&Cs are particularly critical due to the Republic of China Air Force’s reliance solely on lightweight fighter classes such as the F-16 and F-CK Ching Kuo which carry very small radars that provide only limited situational awareness. By contrast, heavyweight fighters such as the J-16 fielded by mainland China carries a radar approximately four times as large as the F-16 can, and can thus function effectively without AEW&C support. Modern AEW&Cs have the potential to also provide a degree of situational awareness against the mainland’s fast growing fleet of increasingly capable stealth fighters, which is set to begin to include the world’s first sixth generation fighters from the early 2030s.

The Republic of China Air Force’s lack of strategic depth, with all major facilities concentrated on the island of Taiwan just 130 kilometres away from the mainland, has raised serious questions regarding the survivability of AEW&Cs in the event of a resumption of hostilities between the two rival Chinese governments. The mainland’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force has operationalised increasingly capable classes of very long ranged anti-aircraft missile, such as the 40N6 deployed by its S-400 air defence systems which has a 400 kilometre range, and the PL-XX deployed by its J-16 fighters which as a 500 kilometre range. The size and lack of manoeuvrability of AEW&Cs is expected to leave them highly vulnerable when operating from bases so close to the mainland. Should new AEW&Cs be procured, the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail is considered a likely option, and is the only system considered to have comparable capabilities to the Chinese mainland’s KJ-500 AEW&C system.