The peaceful reunification of Taiwan Province has attracted much attention, especially at the beginning of the Spring of the Year of the Tiger, and this march has made people think about this issue again. Among them, the issue of dealing with the island's legacy after the peaceful liberation of Taiwan has been hotly discussed.
With the rapid development of our army's military equipment and technology, the emergence of new equipment such as J-20 stealth fighters and 055 large destroyers has aroused people's attention.
The M48 'Yonghu' tank in Taiwan Province is a "classic car" of the last century, and the old equipment of the Taiwan Army and Navy is also unsatisfactory, but the departure and retention of the 434 fighters of the Taiwan Air Force has caused everyone trouble.
Why is that? Because the Taiwan Air Force does have excellent fighters.
Although Taiwan Province has been somewhat embarrassed in front of our Air Force in recent years, if you take Taiwan's air power out of East Asia and compare it with other Southeast Asian countries, you will find that Taiwan's air power is still in the leading position, and its strength should not be underestimated.
You must know that the Taiwan Air Force has a total of 434 fighters, and this kind of strength can be regarded as a regional hegemon even in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Taiwan Provincial Air Force mainly consists of F-5 fighters, Mirage 2000 fighters, IDF fighters and F-16V, of which the F-5, Mirage 2000 and IDF fighters seem to us to be obsolete and no longer have real combat effectiveness.
However, the F-16V fighter has important value and has important reference significance for the development of our single-engine fighter.
At the end of 2021, Lockheed Martin built 66 F-16V Block 70 72 single-engine light fighters for Taiwan Province, and plans to complete all deliveries by 2026.
In addition, Taiwan Province signed a 39$600 million contract to upgrade the existing 141 F-16A B jets to the latest F-16V Block 70 72 around 2023.
The F-16 "Fighting Falcon", known as the world's best multi-role fighter, was developed by Lockheed Martin. It has more than 3,000 aircraft in service in 25 countries around the world, accounting for 15% of the world's total number of fighter jets.
Its production lines are located in the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Korea and Turkey. Because of its excellent air combat performance and controllable cost, the US military has a soft spot for it. Since its introduction in 1979, the F-16 has continued to improve.
The latest improved model is the F16V Block70 72.
The F16V is a new fighter announced by Lockheed Martin at the Singapore Airshow 2012. Due to the inclusion of the letter V in the model name, the F16V is also known as the Viper, although this is not its official codename.
In addition to the SLEP life upgrade of the previous model, the F16V also received an advanced Combat Avionics Project extension upgrade, namely the CAPES upgrade, and was later retrofitted to the NOG SABR radar due to cost issues.
The core upgrade is the AN APG-83 active phased array radar, also known as Variable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) developed by Grumman, which significantly outperforms the F-16 scanning radar and has great potential for subsequent upgrades.
The AN APG-83 radar is the own radar of the US National Guard, which can provide the driver with clear target area intelligence and digital map display.
The radar can simultaneously track more than 20 targets with a maximum resolution of up to one foot and a detection range of more than 296 kilometers. Compared with the original APG-66 scanning radar, the detection range of the AN APG-83 radar has increased by 30%, the battlefield detection capability has increased by 220%, and the self-protection capability has also increased by 180%.
In addition, the radar's reliability has been significantly improved, even if around 20% of the mechanical components are damaged, it will not significantly affect the radar performance, and its service life is almost in sync with the service life of the F16 body.
In conclusion, the AN APG-83 radar is an efficient and reliable radar device that can significantly increase the combat effectiveness of the pilot.
The F-16V has been upgraded and refitted, which has greatly improved its survivability and combat effectiveness. The cockpit has undergone major improvements, with Lockheed Martin outfitting the F-16V with a new Modular Mission Computer (MMC)-MMC7000AH, replacing the original three computers.
The new computer has brought significant improvements in processing power and reaction speed, with Lockmartin claiming that it is about twice as fast as the old computer, and about 10 times more memory.
Lockheed Martin announced that they will upgrade the F16 simulation training cockpit to improve situational awareness, air-to-air strike performance, accurate positioning and information processing capabilities.
The upgraded cockpit will feature a new computer with more slots and room for modifications. In addition, the cockpit will be equipped with two 4x4-inch and one 6x8-inch high-resolution color displays, with the larger Control Display (CPD) providing radar map and gauge information data, and is compatible with night vision imaging systems to provide clear night vision images for the driver.
The F-16V fighter is equipped with a Link-16 datalink and an identification friend or foe system to enhance its connection with ground forces and combat effectiveness. At the same time, the new automatic ground collision avoidance system is able to provide pilots with protection in the event of high overloads.
In addition, the nacelle canopy coating and the electromagnetic wave adsorption coating sprayed on the fuselage also further improve its radar stealth performance.
The improvement of the F-16V made the squadron pay a lot of attention to Pratt & Whitney's F100-PW-229 and General Electric's F110-GE-129 turbofan engines, because they are the best among turbofan engines due to their excellent performance and reliability.
The two advanced jet engines can provide about 13,154 kilograms of thrust, allowing the F-16V to reach a maximum speed of Mach 2 and an increased range of 3,222 kilometers.
China started late in the field of aero engines and needs to introduce advanced technology to promote the development of the industry. Laser impact strengthening technology can effectively improve the performance and machining accuracy of turbofan engine blades, avoid crack propagation and eliminate residual stress.
If China can obtain the F110-GE-129 engine entity, it will help to improve the accuracy and level of blade processing in China.
General Electric F110-GE-129 To sum up, after the peaceful reunification of Taiwan Province, although due to the combat system and combat function factors, the F-16V of American advanced technology cannot directly join the equipment system of our army, but its excellent phased array radar and high-efficiency turbofan jet engine provide an important reference value for the development of China's future single-engine light multi-role fighter.
In addition, after the F-16V has been fully utilized in scientific research, it can also play a role as an imaginary enemy unit of the Blue Army, and use its unique radar reflection model and electronic reconnaissance and communication characteristics different from those of our military system to effectively train our air force pilots in identifying the characteristics of fighters of Western countries.
With China's stricter control over Taiwan Province, Taiwan Province has in fact lost the initiative on the cross-strait issue. Coupled with Taiwan Province's economic dependence on the mainland, the peaceful reunification of the two sides of the strait is a foregone conclusion.
As far as China is concerned, the governance of Taiwan Province after peaceful reunification and the disposal of legacy assets will become the primary task. For example, this batch of 207 F-16Vs, if used wisely, will save us years of research and development time and huge money.