According to statistics released by Taiwan’s defense department, since September, more than 50 PLA military aircraft have entered the airspace surrounding Taiwan. Taiwan’s “Lianhe Daily” quoted news reports as saying that Taiwan’s fighters flying off to perform the “interception” mission, the operating cost of aircraft per hour is more than NT$1 million. Recently, in response to the “disturbance” of the PLA military aircraft, hundreds of million NT dollars have been spent (NT$1 is approximately US$0.034).
According to the report, some analysts said that the mainland wanted to fight a war of attrition and used normalized fighter cruises to consume the logistics energy of the Taiwan military. And Taiwan’s current interceptor include Mirage fighters, F-16 fighters and IDF fighters. Among the 3 models, the Mirage fighter’s fuel consumption is the highest, which is about 30% more fuel consumption than IDF fighters; furthermore, it also features high unit price of components.
However, according to a report from Taiwan’s Central News Agency on October 4, local time, Taiwan’s National Defense Think Tank National Defense Security Research Institute scholar Su Ziyun believes that even if the mainland circumvents Taiwan in a war of attrition, the actual rate of consumption of PLA will be worse than that of the Taiwan military. He said that the reason is that the engine life of PLA fighters is only about a quarter of that of U.S. fighters, and the reliability of their restricted materials science is not good, and the intervals between overhauls are shorter. According to public information from India and Malaysia, PLA’s SU-30 fighters have an availability rate of only between 43% and 53%, while the current availability rate of PLA’s new fighters is estimated to be only 60%, and the fighters must be deployed in the east, north, west, south, and central theaters, so the number of new fighters that can be operated in each theater is limited.
Su analyzed that in addition to infringing on Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), the PLA has also disrupted Japan’s ADIZ. It also has to deal with the reconnaissance of the US military, the Sino-Indian border, and the South China Sea. So the tasks are quite heavy. He further pointed out that the PLA’s recent invasion of Taiwan’s ADIZ models are all slow-speed aircraft of the Yun-8 and Yun-9 series. The use of such aircraft can save the loss of fighters. This is the so-called “logistics war” of saving and centralizing cost-effectiveness.
Zhang Yanting, former deputy commander of the Taiwan Air Force, said in an interview that the PLA spy on Taiwan’s military energy through aircraft-to-ship disturbances. At present, Taiwan’s three main types of fighters (the IDF, Mirage 2000, and F-16) of the Taiwan’s military have all served for more than 20 years and has reached their mid-life. Therefore, it is necessary for Taiwan to adjust related strategies and even dispatch slow aircraft to intercept PLA’s aircraft.