Keep it secret? Taiwan’s military has spent 5 billion dollars in upgrading its radar network around the island.
[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Yang] In order to cope with the unprecedented pressure caused by the frequent “frequent circumvention of Taiwan” by the People’s Liberation Army, the Taiwan authorities, in addition to buying advanced fighters such as F-16Vs, also spent a lot of money to spread the Taiwanese air force in the mountainous and remote areas of the island. The radar station is fully upgraded, trying to build an airtight radar network around the island.
Taiwan Navy fully upgrades old radar
Taiwan’s "United Daily News" stated on the 5th that due to "the People's Liberation Army aircraft and ships have continuously circumvented Taiwan for training in recent years," the Taiwan military has continued to strengthen various radar surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in addition to promoting "asymmetric combat power."
The Taiwan Navy has decided to significantly replace and update the old radars. It will spend 10 years and NT$5.05 billion to fully upgrade more than 10 radar stations of various types in the mountains and remote areas of Taiwan.
According to reports, the Taiwan Navy’s land-based radar unit is mainly in charge of the “Navy Marine Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command”, which has 5 squadrons, 4 long-range radar stations, 11 medium-range radar stations, and 4 short-range radar stations.
Some of these scattered radar stations independently perform maritime surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and some are co-located with the Taiwan Air Force.
Due to the need to ensure that the radar detection range is not hindered by terrain, many radar stations are built in mountainous areas with inconvenient traffic and harsh conditions.
According to the report, the radar upgrade plan submitted by Taiwan's “Ministry of National Defense” is called the “Overall Marine Surveillance Energy Improvement Project” and it was only approved on August 11 this year. The entire upgrade plan is expected to continue from 2021 to 2030.
Taiwan’s “Ministry of National Defense” stated that most of the active radars in the Taiwan Navy have been in service for more than 20 years, and most of the key components have exceeded their lifespan. It is not easy to purchase replacement parts. In addition, the anti-jamming capability of these old-fashioned radar equipment is weak, so related radar equipment The performance improvement is imminent.
Taiwan’s "Ministry of National Defense" hopes that this move will strengthen Taiwan’s military’s ability to monitor and reconnaissance targets at sea. "The new generation of radar can increase automation and anti-jamming capabilities, and improve the rate of compliance."
The Taiwan Air Force is eager to "check for omissions"
The Taiwan Air Force is also strengthening its comprehensive radar monitoring capabilities, currently relying mainly on US-made E-2T airborne early warning aircraft and multi-type land-based radars.
Taiwan’s “Ministry of National Defense” announced in August that it plans to spend NT$1.5 billion to upgrade six E-2Ts to the latest E-2D early warning aircraft, and plans to complete all modifications in 2024.
However, the Taiwan military's early warning aircraft stay in the air for a short period of time. They usually only take off at critical moments and rely on land-based radar stations for more time.
The American-made "Paving Claw" radar deployed in Leshan is the core of Taiwan's Air Force radar system. It has a maximum detection range of more than 4,800 kilometers and claims to be able to track thousands of sea and air targets.
Because the "Paving Claw" radar targets are large and vulnerable to attack, the Taiwan Air Force has deployed a number of TPS/FPS-117 series mobile radars to provide target information for air defense and anti-missile.
However, after the Saudi oil refinery was attacked by drones last year, the Taiwan Air Force admitted that “the active battle management radar does not have the ability to detect drones and cruise missiles” and urgently compiled the “TPS/FPS-117 radar performance improvement case”. It is planned to spend NT$1.4 billion to upgrade the existing 7 radar stations.
Recently, Taiwan media also disclosed that the monitoring of PLA military aircraft by Taiwan Air Force radar stations has been confirmed to have blind spots.
It is said that the People’s Liberation Army used to conduct flight training in the direction of the Diaoyu Islands. The Taiwan Air Force set up a radar station in Dongaoling, Suao, Yilan. The main function is to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance in the airspace of Taipei and the northeast. The Taiwan Air Force is the most important monitoring radar station for "PLA fighters entering the eastern airspace of Taiwan through the Japanese Air Defense Identification Zone."
However, Taiwan’s “defense veterans” admitted that PLA military aircraft have frequently approached from the southwest of Taiwan’s “Air Defense Identification Zone” recently. When PLA military aircraft are training in the Bashi Channel and South China Sea airspace, “Taiwan’s fixed radar station has dead spots in this area. "At present, only mobile radar vehicles, airborne early warning aircraft, and naval warships can be used to make up for it.
It is said that reconnaissance in the southern airspace of Taiwan mainly relies on the Dahanshan radar station in Pingtung. Currently, the Taiwan’s "Ministry of National Defense" is considering adding a fixed radar station to the existing Dahanshan radar station in order to achieve "all-weather reconnaissance in the South China Sea". ability".
The air defense command system is also upgraded
According to the Taiwan Dongsen News Cloud website, the current Taiwan military is still strengthening the informatization construction of the air defense command system.
The air defense software of the Taiwan Air Force’s combat command has been upgraded from the earliest semi-automatic "Skynet" to the fully automated "Strong Net", "Strong Net Phase Two", and even today's "Huan Net".
The Taiwan Air Force claims that the "Huanwang" mainly receives all external signals such as radar stations, the Civil Aviation Administration and missile positions, generates an overall air situation map, performs air defense tasks and air control target tasks, and can perform interception tasks against "incoming targets" in the air. It is the "central system center" of Taiwan's air defense combat control.
Now the Taiwan Air Force intends to upgrade this equipment to the "Huanzhan Project," which will include all air defense missile systems such as the "Patriot-3" and carry out software and hardware replacements.
After the "Huan Zhan Project" is upgraded, the Taiwan military can coordinate the combat command of the Taiwan military through the radar station.
Some analysts believe that in the face of the rapid changes in the PLA’s equipment and tactics, the Taiwanese military’s heavy-handedly built radar network around the island is probably a idiotic dream. Moreover, the Taiwan military’s radar system itself is full of problems. There were as many as 19 serious failures requiring emergency repairs.