Taiwan has been living between a rock and hard place for quite some time. Ever fearful of an attack from China, they're going to receive early warning radars from the United States. China's military build-up continues, and they reportedly tested a cruise missile with a 1000km range.
In a move bound to anger Beijing, which views Taiwan as a renegade province, the system will let Taiwans air force detect and track long- and short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, enemy aircraft and surface ships with no doubt reliability, said Raytheon, based in Waltham, MA.The article notes that the radar system could eventually be linked to Patriot missile defense batteries, a system with great capability and a slightly checkered past.
The system includes an ultra-high frequency phased array radar to be integrated with Taiwan-supplied beacons that identify aircraft as friends or foes as well as two missile warning centers, a Defense Department contract announcement said.
Maybe they'd be interested in some R2-D2 units?
--posted by Murdoc
