TADTE: UCAVs and carrier killers

Quite enjoying the world of Taiwan military aviation on show at the Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition (TADTE, which everyone pronounces as 'TATE').

The most striking thing by far is the belligerent videos and images the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense has on display.

A video in the stand of Chung-Shan Institute of  Science and Technology (above) has a Taiwanese F-16 destroying a Chinese warship and ground targets, while a UCAV similar to the X-45 or X-47 shoots down an Su-27. UCAVs also fire upon ground and sea targets. They told me this capability would be possible in ten years, but that it's not aimed at any particular country. It is remarkably similar to a mural displayed by China at last year's Zhuhai show.

The mural below shows a missile slamming into a ship that looks remarkably like China's first carrier, which happened to have its maiden cruise yesterday. I'm told that in Chinese the words read 'carrier killer.'

"Is that China's aircraft carrier?" I asked a nearby naval officer.

"No, it is meant more generally than that. We don't refer to one specific country."

Perhaps he was referring to Thailand's carrier or one of the Indian carriers. Scenarios in which either of those countries were to attack Taiwan are, I fear, beyond my imaginative capabilities. 

Though many western pundits have dismissed China's carrier ambitions, Taiwan fears such ships operating to the east of the Island. Most of the country's sea defences are oriented toward destroying shipping in the Taiwan Straits. Air strikes coming in from the east would greatly complicate the island's defence.