Stronger Taiwan air force hangars seen to be no match for Chinese military’s new ballistic missiles
- Taiwan aims to build 36 new missile-proof hangars at its Taichung airbase
- Chinese short-range missiles designed for precision strikes with bigger payloads may render those plans futile, military experts say
Chang cited a promotional video for the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) export version M20, also called the DF-12 surface-to-surface short-range tactical missile, to explain his point.
He said the four-tonne (8,820 pounds) Dongfeng (DF) missile could be armed with “fuel-air warheads”, which use oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion to completely destroy targets.
“With a less than one metre (3.3 feet) of circular error probability [for the missiles], all efforts to reinforce fighter jet hangars in Taiwan would amount to nothing when dealing with the PLA,” Chang said, referring to the measure of a weapon system’s precision.
This comes after Taiwan’s defence ministry sought continued funding for its seven-year plan to build 36 new hangars at the air force’s largest base in the central city of Taichung.
The hardened hangars at the Ching Chuan Kang Air Base would be designed to withstand hits from the PLA’s Dongfeng ballistic missiles, air force chief Huang Chih-wei told a defence committee under Taiwan’s legislature last month.
The hangars would be able to resist a single warhead with 1,500 pounds (0.7 tonnes) of explosives, and have up to 3,300 pounds of anti-bomb capacity, Huang said. Construction work was expected to be outsourced by the end of December.
With Taiwan’s existing air force hangars deemed unable to resist the PLA’s new advanced Dongfeng series ballistic missiles, the island’s defence ministry proposed a seven-year budget of NT$4.39 billion (US$143 million) in 2020 to build the reinforced bases over seven years.
The project, expected to be completed in 2026, would better protect Taiwanese warplanes and preserve combat capability in case of an attack by the PLA, Huang said.
Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, said experts had evaluated the designed 3,300-pound anti-bomb capability based on the combat capacity of the PLA’s DF-16 short-range missile, which can carry a one-tonne payload with a strike range of between 800km and 1,000km.
Intensive periodic PLA drills on a smaller scale have continued around the island as tensions across the Taiwan Strait remain high.
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“The payload of the DF-16 is one tonne, or 2,200 pounds,” Lu said. “Given the additional impulsive force from its speedy warhead, it does make sense to have a resistance of up to 3,300 pounds.”
Taiwanese fighter jets were earlier placed in ventilated hangers without any blast-resistant designs, Lu added.
“All the airbases in Taiwan are vulnerable once a Taiwan contingency happens. But, compared with the previous design, the new hangars at least can better protect fighter jets and increase the PLA’s strike difficulty.”
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A source close to the PLA said while the DF-12 is only for export at the moment, the mainland had developed a series of short-range missiles and MLRS with different strike capabilities, targeting Taiwan’s military and government buildings.
The circular error probability for all the warheads was under one metre, the source said.
“The PLA has not put the DF-12 into service, it is just for export. But the mainland has developed many other types of short-range missiles armed with specific warheads that are tailor-made for precision strikes,” said the source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.