The Trump administration has notified Congress that it approved the sale of $600 million
in armed MQ-9B drones and related equipment to Taiwan.
The deal will enable Taiwan’s to acquire four “weapons ready” remotely piloted
aircraft and related equipment.
This is the latest in a series of arms transfers for the island.
Viewers may note that the US Department of State before this has approved the sale of
11 truck-based rocket launchers made by Lockheed Martin Corp called HIMARS ( High Mobility
Artillery Rocket System), 135 AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER)
Missiles, and 6 MS-110 Recce external sensor pods made by Collins Aerospace for jets in
a deal worth $1.8 billion.
The administration has also approved plans for a $2.37 billion sale of Harpoon missile
systems to Taiwan which saw Beijing announcing sanctions on U.S. defense contractors, including
Boeing.
After this announcement, China vowed Wednesday that it will make a “proper and necessary
response” if the U.S. proceeds with the sale.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the move “brutally interferes in China’s
internal affairs and seriously undermines China’s sovereignty and security interests,”
adding that the U.S. should cancel all such sales to Taiwan “so as to avoid further
damage to China-U.S. relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why the potential sale of the MQ-9 Reaper has
got China very worried?
Let’s get started
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Taiwan & China have been at loggerheads.
Their conflict can be traced back to 1949, and the end of the civil war of China.
The Nationalists were defeated whereas the Communists won.
The Nationalists moved to Taiwan and set up their own government there.
Communists set up the People's Republic of China.
Both sides claimed they represented the whole of China.
China considers Taiwan as part of its territory and is willing to bring it back into its fold
even if it requires force.
In 1979, the United States normalized diplomatic relations with the Beijing government under
the Communist Party of China.
Since then the relation between Taiwan–United States became unofficial and informal and
is governed by the Taiwan Relations Act.
The Taiwan Relations Act is designed to maintain ambiguity and does not state if the USA will
or will not intervene militarily if the PRC attacks or invades Taiwan.
Under the act, the U.S is obligated to sell “arms of a defensive character” to Taiwan.
Chinese hostile stance towards Taiwan reached new levels after the election in Jan last
year which saw Taiwanese voters re-elected incumbent president Tsai Ing-Wen in a landslide
election.
She easily defeated her opponent Han Kuo-yu, whose Kuomintang party promotes closer ties
with China.
This is seen as a sharp reprimand to Beijing and its attempts to intimidate and lure Taiwan
into China’s fold.
The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle
or UAV capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems primarily for the United States Air Force.
The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance
On March 9th, 2018, the US Air Force officially retired Predator and replaced it with MQ-9
Reaper.
Reaper will be the backbone of US Air Force drone operations going forward.
Viewers may note that Predator was the one which initiated the era of unmanned air combat
and put the fear of god into the heart of America’s enemies especially the terrorists.
The MQ-9 is a larger, heavier, and more capable aircraft than Predator.
Reaper is a major upgrade and brings in much more to the table when compared to Predator.
Predator had an endurance of 24 hours, a service ceiling of 25,000 ft. a range of 675 mi or
1,100 km and a max speed of 135 mph or 217 km/h.
Reaper has an endurance of, 27 hours, a service ceiling of 50,000 ft, a range of 1,151 mi
or 1,852 km and a max speed of 300 mph or 482 km/h
The US Air Force also has plans to acquire extended-range (ER) upgrade kits for almost
all of the Reapers.
With the ER kit, Reapers will have an endurance of up to 42 hours without external stores.
Reaper’s main sensor is the nose-mounted MTS-B multi-spectral surveillance and targeting
turret and its fuselage-mounted Lynx synthetic aperture radar.
But Reaper’s pylons are very versatile and can be used to carry a variety of tactical
equipment like communications relay hops, electronic warfare pods as well as Wide Area
Aerial Surveillance (WAAS) camera arrays.
The additional sensors are designed to act in conjunction with the drone’s main sensors.
The USAF is also planning to put more potent radars onboard some Reapers.
The idea is to create Ground Moving Targeting Identification (GMTI) sensor nodes that can
be dispersed around the war zone.
GMTI is a radar capability that can be used to trail moving targets on the ground over
time using radar.
Reaper has the ability to carry around 2,500 lbs or 1100 kg of weapons payload through
its external hardpoints.
The Reaper's hard-points give it the ability to deploy a combination of AGM-114 Hellfire,
GBU-12 Paveway, and GBU-38 JDAM munitions.
AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile is capable of precision strikes.
It can be used with many types of warheads like High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) or tandem
anti-armor Metal augmented charge (MAC) or shaped charge Blast fragmentation.
GBU-12 Paveway is an aerial laser-guided bomb.
It is based on the Mk 82 500-pound general-purpose bomb but has a nose-mounted laser seeker and
fins for guidance.
GPS guidance modes have been added to make the bomb more accurate.
The GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition or JDAM is a 500 lb or 226 kg bomb manufactured
by Boeing using the Mk82 bomb body.
JDAM is a guidance kit that has an inertial guidance system coupled to a GPS receiver,
that converts unguided bombs into all-weather “smart” munitions.
JDAM has a published range of up to 15 nautical miles or 28 km.
All of these are Air to Ground Weapons.
But Reaper could potentially be armed with AIM-9X air to air missile.
AIM-9X has a speed of Mach 2.5 and a range of 22 miles or 35 km.
It has Infrared homing for guidance and has a 9.4 kg warhead.
Taiwan & China are separated by The Taiwan Strait.
So, China will have to move its forces across the strait in case it decides to invade Taiwan.
Reaper hovering over the strait will be an excellent force multiplier for Taiwan since
it will be able to keep a tab on the movement of Chinese forces.
The platform will essentially eliminate the possibility of China taking Taiwan by surprise.
The U.S. administration said the sale would improve Taiwan’s defense by bolstering its
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and could act as a deterrence.
It stated, “This proposed sale serves U.S. national, economic, and security interests
by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and
to maintain a credible defensive capability.
The proposed sale will help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining
political stability, military balance, economic, and progress in the region.”
It is no surprise that China has not taken this move lightly and is irked.