Tanaka Memorial Never Sleeps 不謀萬世者不足謀一時 不謀全局者不足謀一域

The historical similarities between the RCAF and CAF were many and significant in WWII, then the Canadians and Chinese had worked together in common cause.  An addition to the library of aviation enthusiasts, this block features the Canadian classical Chance-Vought Corsair IV, Hawker Hurricane I, Supermarine Spitfire VB; their heritage are followed by today’s Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King, CH-148 Cyclone, and more.

9 Aug 1945, days before atomic bombs brought the WWII to a sudden end, the 1841 Sqn’s Corsairs from carrier Formidable attacked Shiogama harbor.  Volunteer Reserve pilot Lt. Robert Hampton Gray was hit by Japanese flak but pressed on his target, sinking this destroyer with a 1,000 pounder but crashing into the bay.  Awarded posthumously Canada's last Victoria Cross, Lt. Grey became the final Canadian casualty to resist the murderous Great Eastern Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.  Ironically, in 2006 Japanese built a Lt. Grey memorial by the Shiogama Bay, amid the Japan Self-Defense Forces’ “regularization”, and their postwar Peace Constitution sneaks back to Imperial Constitution.

As long as there have been Japanese, there have been Yamato Expansionism, which is currently reflected at the Diaoyu Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea.  These islands were administered as part of the Chinese territory from the 14th century, followed by the Japanese occupation in 1895-1945.  Even in the 1876 Total Japanese Map issued by the Imperial Japanese Army, none of Okinawa (Ryukyu) Island and Senkaku (Diaoyu) Island ever existed.  In 1945-72 the US oversaw them under the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands.  Planting a time bomb for a future China-Nippon territory dispute, the US reverted the islands to Japanese control under the "Okinawa Reversion Treaty".  As planned, this ticking bomb explodes ferociously in 2012, to placate US demands for her global administrator, while Japan badly needs Diaoyu to justify its reviving militarism.

Seagull Search and Rescue Squadron 海鷗中隊

Renowned as the CAF's Seagull- a symbol of sea survivor escort, this SAR Sqn’s original Sikorsky H-5G Dragonfly has been followed by Consolidated PBY-5A/OA-10A Catalina, Sikorsky H-19B Chickasaw, Grumman HU-16A/B Albatross, Bell HH-1H Iroquois, and Sikorsky S-70C Bluehawk over six decades.  Amid an Albatross was shot down by MiGs at the height of the cross Taiwan Straight hostility.

In a secret ferry along the Fujian coast after the darkness fell, Jan 8, 1967, three PROC coastal militias shot another seven comrades on a 50 ton LCU, s/n F-131, and diverted to the ROC outpost Matsu.  Soon Beijing learned that a VIP plane will arrive Matsu on Jan 9, to transfer the “Anti-Communist Heroes” to Taiwan, this info leakage prompted the retaliation plan of the Red centre.  At that point an ambush by the PLAAF 24^th Div was ready for launch, which was approved by PM Zhou Enlai.

0837 Jan 9, a C-47 landed at Matsu, but its wing was badly damaged due to the PSP mats.  In an effort to recover the crippled transport, a PBY urgently departed Jiayi with repair crewmen, material, plus reporters onboard.  Considering the Cat’s limited payload, 1211 another SA-16 touched down for all the defectors and reporters.  To countermeasure the Albatross’s three probing radio calls, PLAAF had remained inaction until 1533, two minutes later the unaware amphibian took off.  Covered by two J-6 fighters, 1551, two J-5s started four firing passes at 400 Km/hr.  With its left engine and empennage destroyed, the SA-16 descended sharply before crashing into the sea.  Wreckage was never found by three dozen search sorties, all 17 men onboard were killed.

Protection Fee Diplomacy

Throughout 1980s, the ROC Navy and Sikorsky had discussed terms of bailout agreement that would allow the ROCN the opportunity to obtain the H-60 derivative, when the US congress kept rejecting the export permission of SH-60B/ASW Sea Hawk to Taiwan. Eventually, Taiwan obtained the S-70M/ASW with 60% higher unit price than the earlier S-70C/SAR helicopter. Taiwan received the first three S-70M/ASW helicopters of a planned procurement of 10 on Aug 29, 1991. These Ms are deployed on board 8 Perry-class and 16 Lafayette-class frigates; this costly acquisition quite reflected the tri-lateral conciliation.

As historic trends, Taiwan returns to the Pan-Chinese orbit is just a matter of time. The stronger the unification bond, the feebler the US can use Taiwan as leverage to oppress the rise of China, and the less Taiwan needs purchasing US weapons. For the Reds, the PROC finally understands that conditionally allowing ROC’s arms upgrading, is necessary for Taiwanese switching from anti-unification to natural-unification. Its military might is proved only works for restricting the Taiwanese independence movement, not spontaneous unification, which is popular among 85% populace of the island. Needless to say the Red leaders received fat commissions from Taiwanese defense purchases. For the US, dwarfing Taiwan as an armed protectorate is part of its global domination.

As for Taiwan, its de-facto independence heavily depend on the US. As long as the US keeps supporting Taiwan, the PROC is impossible to merge ROC. So under the ROC’s current vague “no unification, no independence, no war” policy, Taiwanese generally accept postponed unification, via armed autonomy. Furthermore all its politicians, either anti- or pro-independent, regard Uncle Sam as their overlord.  Prior to the 2012 Taiwanese presidential election, campaign staff on both sides flew to Washington to kowtow for approval, following the US declared US$ 5.852 billion military sales to Taiwan.  It’s little wonder ROC’s déjà vu cycle is constant state of imbalance.

The price of half-hearted defense management efforts is bottomless import: Boeing Vertol B-234MLR, CH-47SD Chinook heavy-lift transport, Hughes 500MD/ASW Defender, Sikorsky S-70C/SAR Bluehawk , S-70M/ASW Seahawk helicopters, the list could go on and on.

Nonsense begets nonsense

All the currently CAF operational S-2T Turbo-Trackers were modified from the aging S-2E/Gs of the ASW Group. With the original US$260 million plan for conversion of 25 S-2Es and 7 S-2Gs, 2 Gs were first sent to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for upgrading to the S-2T standards by Northrop Grumman. The maiden flight took place in Jul 1988, and the Turbo-Tracker duo returned to Taiwan in Aug 1991. Additional 25 instead of the planned 32 E/Gs were then converted locally by using retrofit kits supplied by NG.

For the US hungry for dumping its outmoded arms, Taiwan is a dream customer, a compulsive dupe with a bottomless wallet and unconditional dependence on the US.  Without putting the utmost US$430 million deal up for competitive bids, their procurement process wasn’t followed to ensure the best aircraft for the best price.  Instead of the CAF, actually it was the USN signed the contract with NG. When the latter postponed the first two aircraft delivery from Nov 1989 to Feb 1991, Taiwan was in no position to demand a penalty. NG had never completely delivered the ISS parts, and 3/4 spares it delivered were useless. Before half of the planed 32 aircraft were modified, the first 13 completed S-2Ts had already used up all the received retrofit kits.

S-2Tdeal had wildly gone over budget, and the overrun was out of manageable.  Surely this was not the first crude awakening for Taiwan, but with a loose constellation of losers inside the government and outside it, it is difficult to stand up against the inequality with full force.  In 1986-91 the number of ROC-US military procurement disputes totaled 792, in average 5% cases were doomed per year.  With a low 50% operational ready rate, by blog time only 12-15 vintage S-2Ts fulfill daily combat readiness.

A sign of the times

The Civil Air Transport, Inc. was founded by Clair L. Chennault (14th AF) and Whiting Willauer (China Defense Supplies, Inc.) in 1946. During the Chinese Civil War and its brutal wake, CAT supported the Nationalists in both military and civil transport. In the early 50s CAT in Taiwan was bought by the CIA, this civilian airline continued carrying supplies and passengers throughout Taiwan and Asia, often taking political and operational risks declined by other airlines. However, as the most modernized airlines in Taiwan, CAT unveiled the island’s first jet airliner B-1008 (超級翠華號) on Jul 11, 1961, in this brand new Convair CV-880 my mom took me to Hong Kong to join my grandma.

In 1955 Air Asia was formed out of CAT, as Air America's aircraft maintenance branch in Taiwan. With its initial aircraft maintenance equipment and tooling evacuated from the mainland, Air Asia saw business boom in years of the Vietnam War. Servicing all UAAF aircraft deployed in East Asia, and special operation aircraft from Pacific Corp., it turned out to be the largest air maintenance center in the Pacific Rim. During this period, the hangars full of F-105 Thunderchief, F-4 Phantom, and C-130 Hercules was an all too familiar scene at Tainan airport, Air Asia’s home base.

At the peak of its existence as a subsidiary of the E-system, the Air Asia had serviced over 12,000 USAF aircraft and overhauled 8,000 engines. Meanwhile, Taiwan received some US light aircraft from the Vietnam theater, including Cessna OE-1 (USMC Bird Dog equivalent to L-19A, O-1B), O-1G Bird Dog, Cessna U-17A Skywagon, de Havilland U-6A Beaver, and Hughes OH-6A Cayuse light observation helicopter. All of the ROC Army and MC Air Arms buildup was the arrival of these fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.

Unsung Heroes

In the early 1970s, the CAF started looking for a replacement of the aging F-5A/B fleet. Its successor was to be better-equipped and with particular emphasis on maneuverability rather than high speed. In 1973 the CAF Aero Industry Development Center had been licensed to build 212 Northrop F-5E light-weight fighters and 36 F-5F two-seat conversion trainers; the greatly updated F-5E had won the international fighter competition to select an F-5A successor in 1970. In only 21 months, the first CAF F-5E tactical fighter, s/n 5101, was rolled out for public viewing on Oct 30, 1974, breaking the records of all the Tiger-II cooperation productions with Northrop. This version was referred to as the standard model-A of the Tiger-II family, more than 160 machines had been delivered from the AIDC facility at Shuinan AFB by the beginning of 1980. The Fs roll-out started in 1978, from the s/n 5351. In Dec 1986, production of the Tiger-II drew to a close. A total of 242 Es and 66 Fs emerged from the Shuinan plant since 1974.

The AIDC F-5E/F's lower wing skin was machined from a single plate of 7075-T6 aluminum, which and 6061-T6 alloy for landing gear drag brace, etc, were fabricated by the Taiwan Aluminum Corp. under the direction of Mr. Lee, Wei-Liang (李惟梁), the top mechanical engineering and metallurgical expert in ROC. The Tiger-II project was one of many daring engineering achievements accomplished when Taiwan still was one of the 4 Asian Young Dragons, and these projects were materialized by the respectable professionals such as Mr. Lee of Talco, and Colonel Li, Yong-Zhao (李永昭), the AIDC director. Both with characteristic aplomb, Lee and Li were good friends and stood for the traditional Chinese value system, these nameless heroes believed "No guts, no contribution". Unfortunately, such competent generation faded away as Taiwan sank deeper into self-marginalization and hyper-polarized politics, while neo-independence sensation is magnified out of proportion.

As for the worldwide largest Tiger-II fleet, for three decades these F-5E/Fs are flown by the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Tactical Fighter Wings at Tainan, Xinzhu, and Jiayi AFBs, respectively, also by two squadrons in the 5th Composite Fighter Wing at Taoyuan AFB. During the gradual decommissioning of the F-5s in the 1990s, the 1st, 2nd, 4th TFWs were re-equipped with 135 F-CK-1A/B(IDF)s, 60 Mirage 2000-5Ei/Dis, and 150 F-16A/B block 20 MLUs, correspondingly. However, in the past 10 years the CAF has been focused on the uncertain F-16C/D acquirement, while underfunding the aging F-5 fleet overhaul. Though its 60 plus remnants only remains a 15% combat ready rate to date, this obsolete Tiger-II flotilla still is unable to entirely discharged.

The early CAF Tiger-IIs were finished in three-tone jungle camouflage similar to that of the F-5A Freedom Fighters, while the later production wore the light grey air superiority camouflage. The T-38A basic supersonic trainer is the original model of F-5 family, serving in the lead-in fighter training role in the CAF.

Alte Kameraden (Old Comrade)

Ever since the Shanghai Communiqué (1972) between the US and PROC, the US had reduced arms sales to Taiwan gradually while approaching China. Though the Nationalist regime was given more than six years notice, still it was stunned by the US decision to derecognize Taiwan in Dec 1978. After Reagan administration signed a Second Shanghai Communiqué (817 Communiqué) in 1982, the US continued rejecting all Taiwan’s request to replace outdated weapon systems under descending military alliance through the Mutual Defense Treaty (1954).

Under such a political isolation, the CAF unavoidably took part in regional goodwill operation for alleviating harsh realities. On Aug 9, 1972, 29 aircraft of the 6th Transport Wing delivered over 238,000 Lbs typhoon relief supply to Philippine; the Operation Mercy Voyage (慈航演習) was accomplished by 242 crews lead by the 6th‘s CO. On 0630 25 aging C-119s, 1 C-47, 1 C-123, and 2 HH-1H helicopters started taking off in a 10 minutes interval, and headed for Bashi Channel without any emergency transit field en route to Nichols AFB. When the whole fleet arrived safely, part of the supply was urgently transferred to Clark AFB under the request of their host president Ferdinand Marcos. After this successful diplomatic move, Philippine postponed her formal relation with Red Chins to 1975.

Without modern replacement, the C-119 Flying Boxcars (7 squadrons) had continued in service alongside the newer C-123 Providers (1 squadron) for two more decades. Meanwhile, as a precaution of the Communist flotilla with countless motorboats across Taiwan Straight in the next landing, 10 selected C-119s were modified to gunships in 1972. Though six .50 calibers and one 20mm cannon were installed on each of the old comrade, fortunately these indigenous AC-119s had never seen combat. Eventually this modification was removed.