From the publishers of WorldTribune.com and Geostrategy-Direct.com.
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Taiwan's early warning radar wars

Taiwan is caught up in an intense internal debate over which U.S.-made, multi-million dollar early warning radar to choose.

Taiwan is considering both the Raytheon AN/FPS-115 PAVE PAWS (Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry Phased-Array Warning System) long-range early warning radar (EWR), and the Lockheed Martin AN/TPS-59(V)3 Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) radar, according to defense sources.

The AN/TPS-59's radar has a range of only 400 nautical miles (720 km). PAVE PAWS has a range of 3,000 nautical miles (5,556 km).

If Taiwan chooses the PAVE PAWS radar, the Ministry of National Defence plans to base the radar at Leshan Mountain (Happy Mountain) in Hsinchu.

Numerous other radar and antenna complexes are positioned at the extremely secretive Leshan Mountain facility. It is also home to one of the RoC Air Force's air defense control and reporting centers (CRC).

If Taiwan chooses the AN/TPS-59 radar instead, it would base one of them on the outer islands near China and the rest on Taiwan. The trouble with this scheme, however, is that Taiwan is tentatively taking steps to demilitarize the outer islands.
East-Asia-Intel, www.eas-asia-intel.com, October 17, 2003
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