Taipei Must Admit Defeat In The Arms Race -- James R. Holmes, The DiplomatA coda to the apparent emergence of China's Type 052D guided-missile destroyer: every new Chinese hull reinforces the case for remaking Taiwan's naval strategy.
With sixteen frontline DDGs, the PLA Navy will command overwhelming superiority in numbers over the ROC Navy's four elderly Kidd-class DDGs, which are hand-me-downs from the Cold War U.S. Navy. In all likelihood, quality has also come to favor China's navy. The Kidd stood at the forefront of fleet air defense for its day. That day, however, dawned in the late 1970s, when the ships were built for sale to the shah's Iran. They remained credible platforms throughout their service with the U.S. Navy. But they were eclipsed by Aegis-equipped combatants by the early 1980s, when the good ship USS Ticonderoga -- "my" ship for Baltic Sea operations in 1989 -- took to the briny ocean for the first time.
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My Comment: Taiwan is facing a country that is literally 40 to 50 times bigger (in terms of population, economics, etc.) .... that any hope of competing on a military level is delusional at best .... insane at the worst. But I know that they will still try.
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