The United States is pressing Taiwan to procure two
intelligence-gathering devices to correct an intelligence "blind
spot" over the activities of China's army, the authoritative Jane's
Defense Weekly (JDW) says.
The facilities include a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellite
and a signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft, it says in an article
to be published on January 14.
"Taiwan has a major intelligence blind spot regarding what the
ground forces of the People's Liberation Army does," a US defense
department source told the magazine.
"The procurement (from the US) of a SAR satellite is highly
encouraged by the US military," the source said.
Taiwan's existing satellite reconnaissance capability is limited,
depending largely on commercially obtained imagery, with the
sources including the Canadian RADARSAT, French SPOT, Israeli EROS
and US Ikonos, the magazine says.
However this will be boosted when Taiwan launches its own ROCSAT-2
research satellite early this year, it says.
The 750-kilogram (1,650-pound), remote-sensing satellite will
operate at an altitude of 891 kilometers (535 miles) and should
provide imagery with a two-meter resolution, but its level of
precision is unknown.
Without an airborne SIGINT platform, Taiwan cannot intercept high
frequency communication signals from China as its own ground SIGINT
facilities are hindered by the curvature of the earth and the
line-of-sight propagation of the signals, JDW says.
Responding to a request from Taiwan in 2002, Washington has
supplied Taipei with details of two airborne SIGINT options based
on a Raytheon or Cessna aircraft, but Taipei has yet to pursue an
acquisition.
"Significant elements within Taiwan's air force were interested in
these aircraft but met with opposition from within the Ministry of
National Defense... As a result, neither program has gone through,"
the US source said.
China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan, which it claims
as a renegade province, prompting the island to seek more
sophisticated weaponry.
In terms of the Taiwan Relations Act passed by the US Congress when
Washington switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to
Beijing in 1979, the United States is obliged to provide the island
with sufficient weapons to defend itself.
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