Taiwan's regional defense department released the latest news that in the past 14 hours, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) dispatched a total of 21 sorties of J-16, Y-8 and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and 7 ships to operate around the Taiwan Strait, of which 17 sorties of fighters crossed the so-called "middle line of the strait" and entered the airspace of northern, central and southwestern Taiwan to cooperate with PLA ships to carry out combat readiness patrols against Taiwan. In response to this, the Taiwan military has adopted joint intelligence monitoring and reconnaissance methods, strictly guarded, and dispatched fighter planes and ship-based and shore-based missile systems to respond.
Taiwan's defense department pointed out that PLA fighters were moving east of the so-called "median line of the strait" from northern Taiwan, and suddenly advanced to the southeast from the north, approaching 41 nautical miles from Keelung at one point. At the same time, PLA fighters also bypassed the south of the Penghu Islands from the west and turned to fly in the direction of Kaohsiung, which is only 40 nautical miles away from Kaohsiung. The Taiwan military was highly nervous about the rare patrol of Taiwan by the PLA warships and planes, and the fighters of various air bases in western Taiwan immediately took to the air to guard and drive them away, while all the missile bases in northern Taiwan and other places from Eluanbi entered a state of combat readiness.
In this regard, Zhang Yanting, former deputy commander of China's Taiwan Air Force, pointed out that it only takes four to five minutes for PLA fighters to fly from a distance of 41 nautical miles from Keelung over Taipei's "Presidential Palace." I am afraid that the Taiwan military will not have time to give warning.
In an interview with the media today, Zhang Yanting said that if the PLA fighter planes fly into the airspace only 41 nautical miles away from Keelung, then these fighters are only 30 nautical miles away from Tamsui, which is already very close, and if the weather conditions are good, the PLA fighter pilots can see the Tamsui estuary with the naked eye. Zhang Yanting pointed out that the reason why PLA fighters are so close to Taiwan's coastline is mainly due to two considerations: First, they are operating east of the "center line of the strait" to declare that there is no so-called "boundary" in Taiwan, and second, they want Taiwan to gradually get used to this kind of military action and make preparations for the follow-up.
Zhang Yanting warned that it only takes three minutes for PLA fighters to fly from a distance of 30 nautical miles to the sky over the Tamsui estuary, and it only takes more than one minute to fly from the Tamsui estuary to Taipei's "presidential palace," which means that it only takes five minutes for the PLA fighters to appear in the sky over Taipei, but it takes six minutes for the Taiwan fighters to take off urgently, which is equivalent to saying that the PLA has already mastered Taiwan's air supremacy, which will catch the Taiwan military off guard, and there is no warning time at all.
In addition, Zhang Yanting also pointed out that because Taiwan's four cities of New Taipei, Taipei, Keelung, and Taoyuan do not have air bases, the Taiwan military can only use ground air defense missiles to track and monitor the approach of PLA fighters, and this is a big weakness of Taiwan's air defense, and it is obvious that this weakness has been mastered by the PLA, so the PLA will dispatch more fighters to the north.
As a former high-ranking general of the Taiwan Air Force, Zhang Yanting naturally has a very good understanding of Taiwan's military and air deployments, and he has an unusual view of the PLA fighters approaching Keelung, and he soon saw the crisis in Taiwan's "presidential palace." However, Zhang Yanting still underestimated the speed of the PLA fighters reaching the skies over Taipei, and the time it took for the J-16 fighters to reach the skies over Taiwan's "presidential palace" was much less than he expected.
The PLA J-16 heavy fighter has a maximum level flight speed of 2,817 km/h, can fly 47 kilometers per minute, and the time required to fly 41 nautical miles (about 76 kilometers) is only about 2 minutes, which means that the PLA fighter patrolling the Taiwan Strait only needs 2 minutes to reach the sky over Taipei. Since it takes at least 6 minutes for the Taiwan military fighter to take off urgently, this means that the J-16 fighter is still in the process of preparing to take off after completing the strike on Taiwan's "presidential palace".
As a matter of fact, as far as the PLA Air Force is concerned, there is no need to enter the airspace over Taipei to strike at Taiwan's "Presidential Palace," because PLA fighters have long been equipped with long-range air-to-ground weapon systems. Taking the J-16 fighter as an example, this fighter can be equipped with KD-88 air-to-ground missiles, which are developed from the YJ-83K air-launched anti-ship missile, and the guidance method is mid-course inertial guidance + two-way data link + terminal TV guidance, and can be quickly replaced with infrared imaging according to the type of mission, active radar, passive radar and other different types of terminal guidance methods, with a maximum range of more than 200 kilometers, which can carry out precision strikes on ground targets. In the PLA's air-fired exercise footage, the J-16 fighter has repeatedly launched KD-88 air-to-ground missiles, accurately hitting ground buildings and ship targets, showing a strong long-range strike capability.
Therefore, as far as the PLA Air Force is concerned, it is possible to carry out targeted killings of Taiwan's "presidential palace" over the Taiwan Strait, and considering that the range of various surface-to-air missile systems equipped by the Taiwan military is less than 200 kilometers, the J-16 can retreat after launching the missile.
Just as Zhang Yanting said, the purpose of the PLA fighters approaching the waters off Keelung is to gradually reduce the space for strategic activities of the Taiwan military and demonstrate that the PLA has the ability to accomplish the great cause of the motherland's reunification. In the course of the PLA warships and planes constantly patrolling the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwan military will gradually get used to the PLA warships and planes approaching Taiwan's coastline, and this method of "boiling frogs in warm water" will gradually relax the Taiwan military's defense.