For national-security dorks who like to read the Defense Department's 36(b) arms sale notifications, watching the back-and-forth over weapons sales to Taiwan is pure entertainment. It's partly a question of political spin, but it's also an interesting look at how the Pentagon sizes up the military balance between China and Taiwan.
Back in January, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued a stark assessment of Taiwan's air power: Without a serious upgrade, the report said, Taiwan's air defenses would not be able to fight off an attack by China. The Pentagon report -- which was sent to Congress in January, but only became public last month -- noted the growing obsolescence of Taiwan's fighter inventory, which includes F-5 Tigers, Mirage 2000-5s and some older F-16A/Bs. "Taiwan recognizes that it needs a sustainable replacement for obsolete and problematic airframes," the unclassified version of the report said.
That came as welcome news to Taiwan, which has been lobbying to buy more advanced F-16s, the F-16C/D model, from the United States. (China, predictably, is opposed to the plan.)
But here's the catch: The F-16 production line is eventually going to shut down as the United States and its allies switch to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Now members of Congress are now stepping up pressure on the administration to sell the aircraft, in part to keep a production line in Fort Worth, Texas, open.
And that proves the old adage: All politics is local, even when we're talking about the Taiwan Strait. In a floor statement this week, Sen. Jon Cornyn of Texas appealed for the sale to go through. The reason? Constituent jobs.
"Taiwan needs these F-16 C/D aircraft now," he said. "... If hard orders are not received for Taiwan's F-16s this year, the U.S. production line will likely be forced to start shutting down. Once the line begins closing, personnel will be shifted to other programs, inventory orders will be cancelled, and machine tools will be decommissioned. When the F-16 line eventually goes 'cold,' it is not realistic to expect that it would be restarted."
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
