There has always been a voice in the Taiwan military: It wants to attack major civilian facilities on the mainland in order to "deter" the PLA and obstruct the process of reunification of our army.
As far as the Taiwan armed forces are concerned, there are really not many offensive weapons in their hands, and as a "killer" weapon developed by Taiwan, the Taiwan military has high hopes for the "Hsiungfeng-3" missile.
Considering the "Hsiungfeng" missile as a capital for "resisting reunification with force," can they realize their ambitions?
First: the "majesty" of birth at an untimely time
The "Hsiungfeng" series of missiles is one of the few weapons and equipment developed by Taiwan itself, and the original "Hsiungfeng-1" anti-ship missile was designed with reference to Israel's "Gabriel" anti-ship missile.
The range of this type of missile is only 40 kilometers, which is basically at the same level as our military's YJ-81 anti-ship missile, and more than 400 units have been produced before and after, and production has long been discontinued.
Developed to the latest Hsiungfeng-3 anti-ship missile, the range has been increased to 300 kilometers, and the ability to fly at supersonic speed has also been achieved.
The "Hsiungfeng-2E" missile, developed at the same time as the "Hsiungfeng-3" anti-ship missile, is the main model of the Taiwan military's ground strike. The range of the Hsiungfeng-2E missile has exceeded 500 kilometers.
As a land-attack cruise missile, this missile adopts a mid-course inertial guidance/satellite guidance, terminal digital scene matching composite guidance mode, and the accuracy has reached the requirements of precision hitting land targets.
At present, this type of missile has been deployed in the Penghu Islands, posing a serious threat to our army's front-line airfields and ports. So does the "Xiongfeng" missile have the ability to strike at China's Three Gorges Dam?
Two: Can Xiongfeng missiles attack the Three Gorges Dam?
Although the performance of Taiwan's "Hsiungfeng-2E" missile and "Hsiungfeng-3" missile is acceptable, whether or not it can strike at China's Three Gorges Dam is another matter.
For these two missiles to attack the Three Gorges Dam, they must be carried by a fighter-mounted air-launched ground-attack version to be able to hit ground targets.
The Hsiungfeng-2E is a land-based cruise missile with a range of only a few hundred kilometers and no ability to hit targets thousands of kilometers away.
The "Hsiungfeng-3" missile has not yet had any information on the air-launched model, and even if an air-launched model can be developed, whether or not it can strike at the Three Gorges Dam is another matter.
The Taiwan military's "Hsiungfeng-3" and "Hsiungfeng-2E" missiles attacking the mainland's Three Gorges Dam are just empty words, and there is no possibility of realizing them at all.
In the arsenal of the Taiwan Air Force, there are two main types of ground attack weapons: the "Slam ER" and the "Maverick" air-to-surface missile.
The Slam ER missile has a launch weight of up to 700 kilograms, can carry a high-explosive penetration warhead of 360 kilograms, and has a maximum range of up to 280 kilometers, making it a veritable offensive weapon.
Taiwan's F-16V fighters can carry two missiles of this type to attack the ground, and can the combination of F-16V and "Slam ER" missiles attack our Three Gorges Dam?
There is simply no possibility!
Taiwan's F-16V usually has a combat radius of only 600-800 kilometers when equipped with two air-to-surface missiles and four air-to-air missiles, and cannot reach the Three Gorges Dam in the hinterland of the mainland.
It can be said that some politicians in Taiwan want to achieve their goal of attacking the Three Gorges Dam by wishful thinking, and the strength of the Taiwan military is tantamount to striking a stone with an egg.
Three: Can Taiwan military fighters surprise important targets on the mainland?
As a medium fighter, the performance of the F-16V fighter is still good, and the J-10C fighter equipped by our Air Force is in a smooth autumn breeze.
Although it does not have the ability to strike at the Three Gorges Dam, the F-16V carries the Slam ER airspace and has the ability to strike at political, military and political targets along our coast.
The strike radius of F-16V fighters taking off from the Hualien base in eastern Taiwan and the Chiayi base in the west covers the entire province of Fujian, eastern Guangdong and the island of eastern Zhejiang, which is enough to hit important targets such as ports and airfields along the coast of our army.
Taiwan's "Hsiungfeng-2E" land-based cruise missile can also strike important targets along the coast of Fujian, while the "Hsiungfeng-3" anti-ship missile can form a fire blockade in the Taiwan Strait and strike at our military's combat ships deployed on the front line of the Taiwan Strait.
If our army launches an amphibious landing operation, the "Hsiungfeng-3" anti-ship missile is a deadly threat to our landing fleet.
It can be said that the Taiwan military's fighter jets and missile weapons are the capital of the "Taiwan independence elements" to resist reunification by force, although they do not have the ability to attack the Three Gorges Dam.
However, threatening the security of our army's forward military facilities also poses a direct threat to civilian targets along the southeast coast. The "Taiwan independence elements" believe that with offensive capability, they will be able to realize the "decisive battle outside the country" and defeat the beautiful dream of the PLA on the voyage.
How should our military guard against and strike at the threat of offensive weapons and equipment represented by the Taiwan military's "Hsiungfeng" missiles?
Fourth: How the PLA countermeasures
At present, Taiwan's F-16 fighters are deployed in the 4th Fighter Wing at the Chiayi Base and the 5th Fighter Wing at the Hualien Base, and our military will focus on monitoring these two air bases.
Our military's long-range precision strike firepower must first "knock out" the Chiayi base and the Hualien base, and the F-16 fighters in these two bases will lose the opportunity to play a role.
The Taiwan military's "Hsiungfeng-2E" and "Hsiungfeng-3" missile companies are scattered and deployed on the outer islands and Taiwan's main island; before our military launches a landing operation, it is necessary to strike precisely at the opponent's missile launchers so as not to cause heavy losses to the landing force.
At present, the PLA has a powerful long-range strike firepower, and the Type 03 and Type 191 long-range rocket launchers installed by the Eastern Theater Artillery Brigade have a range that completely covers Taiwan's outer islands and the west coast.
During the August exercise against Taiwan, the PLA's long-range rocket artillery demonstrated its powerful precision strike capability, and a number of Type 191 long-range rocket launchers deployed along the coast of Fujian accurately hit fixed targets in the Taiwan Strait.
The PLA's integrated reconnaissance and combat UAV is particularly suitable for attacking highly mobile anti-ship missile/cruise missile launchers, and recently, the Attack 1 and Attack 2 UAVs installed by a certain UAV regiment of the Air Force have been publicly unveiled.
Take the Attack 2 reconnaissance and combat integrated UAV, the endurance time is more than 20 hours, and it can carry about 500 kg of precision guided weapons to strike on the ground.
From the public picture, it can be seen that our military's reconnaissance and combat integrated UAV accurately hit small vehicles that are moving rapidly, and the strike capability is very strong. For the time being, the UAV units of the Eastern Theater have not yet been equipped with integrated UAVs.
If we must install as soon as possible the Eastern Theater of Reconnaissance and Combat UAVs with strong ground surveillance and attack capabilities, it is possible to defeat the Taiwan military's resistance capability at the first time.
At present, the military superiority of the two sides of the strait is on the mainland side, and although certain people in Taiwan have always wanted to seek "independence" by "resisting reunification with force" and even want to attack our important targets, they are bound to encounter bloodshed in the face of the torrent of steel of the People's Liberation Army.