Taiwan is reportedly interested in acquiring as many as 60 advanced F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. The jet is one of the most expensive aircraft in the world, but does Taiwan really need them?
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00:00David, I want to first start off with this F-35, you know, U.S. made, world's most advanced
00:04fighter jet that Taiwan is looking to procure, according to this report from the Financial
00:08Times.
00:09Is this a system that Taiwan needs?
00:10Well, to be blunt, the F-35 is not what Taiwan needs.
00:15It's in the midst of upgrading its F-16 fleet right now, which will give it a highly capable
00:20aircraft.
00:21But I think regardless of where you stand on F-16 versus F-35 and where the Taiwan Air
00:27Force should be, you know, most observers who look at this don't think that Taiwan's
00:31limited resources should go there.
00:34These play a limited role in the gray zone, in meeting the challenges from the PLA Air
00:39Force and the Air Defense Identification Zone.
00:42But once the balloon goes up and a war starts, very few, if any, analysts believe that this
00:48war will be decided in the air and in the skies above and around Taiwan.
00:53So if you're looking at the F-35, it's an incredibly expensive platform.
00:57It's an exquisite high-end platform, and you have to ask yourself whether or not those
01:02resources are much better spent on missiles, mines, drones, and frankly, civil defense
01:08efforts as well.
01:09And I think the answer resoundingly is yes.
01:13One of the reasons for Taiwan looking to spend so big on this arms sale, according to this
01:18report, is that it wants to prove to the next administration that it is serious about its
01:22defense.
01:23What do you make of that reasoning?
01:24Yes.
01:25And here I would say two things.
01:27Number one, clearly Taiwan has read what President-elect Trump has said about Taiwan.
01:34And that is that Taiwan doesn't give us anything.
01:38The United States is no different than an insurance company.
01:41And essentially, Taiwan should pay the United States for defense, whatever that means.
01:46And so Taiwan and the national security establishment on the island could interpret that as meaning,
01:52well, if there are large arms sales to Taiwan, $10, $15 billion plus, maybe that's what Trump
01:59wants and what he means when he says pay the United States for defense.
02:04And so maybe leaders in Taipei believe that that is a down payment on American support
02:09and American defense.
02:11The second thing that I would say is that I think that there's also a view in Taiwan
02:16that basically if you're a tier A ally of the United States, you get F-35s.
02:21And if you don't get F-35s, you're in a tier below.
02:24So Taiwan looks at Israel with F-35s.
02:28It looks at NATO partners with F-35s.
02:30And some in Taiwan say, well, why don't we have that as well?
02:34Because we should be considered in that tier of U.S. allies and partners.
02:40And so I think that that's also driving it.