Back ...

 
Well I didn't go anywhere. But for some reason work overwhelmed my life there for a bit. But back on track - work to live ... not the other way round. Following on from my F 35 post a while ago this caught my eye in the Taipei Times:

Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 A US$2.5 billion contract to sell 30 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters to the Taiwanese Army, sent to US Congress in October 2008 for approval, is on schedule, Defense News reported on Monday.

Since the notification, and especially in the wake of the announcement of a US$6.4 billion US arms sale to Taiwan earlier this year, there had been speculation that Beijing would pressure Boeing Co, the manufacturer of the AH-64, into canceling the deal.

Boeing, a subsidiary of McDonnell Douglas, was among the US firms singled out by Beijing as facing potential retaliatory sanctions for participating in the deal. It also sold Taiwan US$37 million in Harpoon training missiles.A letter of offer and acceptance was signed last year between Taipei and Washington and a joint US government-­Boeing team is expected to visit Taipei in the middle of next month to finalize the deal, the magazine reported, citing sources in the Taiwanese and US defense industries.

Okay, I'm not going to go into China vs Taiwan and who can force whom to buy (or not to buy) what ... but why is this happening. That's an awful amount of money for 30 helicopters. And don't we need more? Like say 300? Or a 1000?

When my brother-in-law trained at artillery school in Taiwan, he was very excited about shooting the M2 (50cal). Much to his disappointment, live fire turned out to be pointing the weapon at the target, pulling the trigger and hearing a taped recording of the gun firing. Literally, "rat-a-tat-tat". These guys aren't training for war anymore. So why purchase weapons that are not going to be used? And the argument that these weapons maintain a balance of power across the strait holds no water. This is a huge amount of money that can be used to build schools in the mountains and probably save the National Health System.

This all brings back fond memories of firing off countless rounds of various calibers during infantry training. There were so many live fire exercises that the instructors did not want to haul back leftover ammunition. And we literally lined up after fire-and-movement and fired off the remaining 5.56., 7.62, AP 65 rifle grenades, 60 mm mortars etc. Ah...those were the days...

Okay ... I've had a look at the Apache. And it's beautiful. We have to get some.