Money is the biggest issue, every flight of Mirage 2000-5 is three times expensive than IDF or F-16 and no ability of air-to-ground attack makes problems even worse.
Mainly because political reasons, French wouldn’t sell ait-to-ground weapon systems to Taiwan.

weird, I thought the M2K was cheaper to operate than the F-16

That must be a pretty cool game well it sound pretty good but im wondering have u ever played Battlefield thats one good game you can be on the Land and Fly and use ships and stuff its a really popular game. I got Battlefield 1942, Desert Combat Final, Vietnam, 2. If you have any of these maybe we can arragne something to vrs each other on the NET.

the controls for aircrafts are horrible for the BF series. but I like it. I dont like 2 as much as 1942 personally.

I hope for their own sake they do consider the FC-1; the crappy F-5 copy can only do so much. I know its never going to happen but I’d love to see the FC-1 in Brazil, production line and all.

no, they have other projects other than F-5 copies.

I read F-5 special report of May issue, Taiwanese Fighters are not easy to see for people in Europe.
This is 737th FW of Taitung AFB, 46TFG (not Sq).

how come the last two F-5s seem to have much shorter landing gears

Why? For a given speed your are in need of a given thrust to “overcome” the related drag. As long as your engine delivers such thrust it is ok. To achive a maximum range from your TF-Spey you have to stay below Mach 0,8 (because you enter the transonic range with rising drag = rising fuel-consumption) and the TF-WS10A faces the same speed limit for long-range endurance. Both engines have to deliver <1500 kp of thrust at height each. That with the sfc dry (for the Spey ~0,7) gives your fuel-consumption per hour. I see no better values for the WS10A related to that!

lol, the silence is deafening after your reply to him 😀

A 100% defensive Air Force is a losing Air Force. A wily enemy will always marshal his attacking force so it can overwhelm the defenders and reach its targets. Historically, air assaults are successful at breaking through 99% of the time. Only a small percentage of your Air Force will be available to stand alert due being in various stages of maintenance/regeneration and they may have a very large area to cover. That tiny alert force will be “steam rollered” by attackers. Expect to take damage due to enemy bombs. The enemy will repeat day after day. The results are not pretty.

which ultimately comes down to, who’s the threat. Countries like Austria or Finland don’t really have the same threats to their country or interests like the US or Britain.

From the Thousand Dragons (qianlong) Chinese-language site.

am I the only one who thinks the FC-1 looks much better than the J-10 from an aesthetic point of view

Latest reports, from yesterday:

Source: Interfax News Agency

this one paints a more pessimistic picture

27.04.2006
Kyrgyzstan may demand US base withdrawal in near future
http://eng.gazeta.kz/art.asp?aid=74652
Kazakhstan today

BISHKEK. A decision on withdrawal of the US military base from Kyrgyzstan will be made after an expert study. Ismail Iskakov, Defence Minister of Kyrgyzstan, has stated this at a press conference in Beijing after a meeting of the SCO Defence Ministers, Kazakhstan Today reports citing RIA “Novosti.”

“A group of experts is currently working, and a decision will be made after it has finished its work,” Ismail Ismailov told journalists responding to a question about the possible US air base withdrawal.

He also said that the said the coalition forces in Kyrgyzstan were not directed at any member of the SCO.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, President of Kyrgyzstan, stated on April 19, 2006, that Kyrgyzstan was ready to terminate the agreement on the Peter Ganci air base if the talks on the new conditions of its stay on the territory of the country were not concluded by June 1, 2006.

The Peter Ganci air base located on the territory of “Manas” airport was created in December 2001 during the antiterrorist operation in Afghanistan.