Taiwan's air force shows off strength

[TallDutch]

CHIAYI AIRBASE, TAIWAN (AFP) - Taiwan showed off two US-made F-16 fighter jets Wednesday in a show of its intent to defend itself from any attack by China.
It carried out the drill -- simulating a Chinese invasion -- as tensions between Taipei and Beijing grow over Taiwan's plans to apply for United Nations membership under the name "Taiwan" and to hold a referendum on the issue.

China and the United States -- an ally of Taiwan -- have repeatedly said the island should drop the referendum plans.

The F-16s' simulated targets were an unspecified number of Chinese military aircraft crossing the 180-kilometre (112-mile) Taiwan Straits, which separates Taiwan from the Chinese mainland.

"We are required to take to the sky within six minutes of receiving an emergency order and it took us about five minutes to fly to the middle of the Straits," air force Colonel Hung Kuang-ming told AFP of the successful drill.

Taiwan's independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian Tuesday sounded an alarm over China's military threat saying Beijing has stockpiled 1,000 ballistic missiles targeting the island.

http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/thu/sep13w20.htm

[Moons / A]

Hello,

I remember an exercise some years ago where jets landed on highways to refuel as part of a similar simulation.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2007/ ... 11424.jpeg

Apparently Taiwan's freeways are also designed as runways for planes in case of military necessity.

http://polipundit.com/Taiwanese%20Mirag ... ighway.jpg