The former deputy commander of Taiwan’s Air Force, Zhang Yan-ting (张延廷), said in a recent interview that his “precise calculations” could provide important intelligence for Taiwan’s military to face the Chinese Air Force, thus forming a surefire air combat tactic.
In face of the Chinese mainland fighter jets, it is important to send pilots with excellent tactical skills and clear minds, and it is also important to seize the right timing, said the former commander.
Zhang believes that since the PLA’s fighters would fly from Jiangxi Shangrao Airport, they will face the problem of insufficient fuel in the absence of air refueling planes.
According to Zhang, the Chinese fighters would hang two secondary fuel tanks, and he happens to know how much fuel is in the secondary tanks, so he is able to calculate how much fuel would be left in the Chinese fighters.
He believes that the Taiwanese aircraft in the air would run out of fuel for the mainland Chinese fighter in the process of circling the latter, at which point another Taiwanese fighter would take off in an emergency and launch an attack, and the Chinese fighter would be powerless to fight back and would have to flee.
He added that if China uses air refueling planes, Taiwan would attack the air refueling planes first, in which case China would have no way to deal with it.