Wanjian / Wan Chien

The Wan Chien (Ten Thousand Swords) missile carries more than 100 submunitions and has a range of about 200 kilometers, meaning the IDF fighter jet can launch it from near the "middle line" of the Taiwan Strait and destroy costal military facilities including airfields in the Chinese mainland. US policy has long denied Taiwan efforts to acquire air-launched weapons considered offensive, such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions and AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles.

The Wanjian bomb, the Xionger E cruise missile, and the Yunfeng ground-to-ground missile can directly attack the PLA�s eastern theater base camp, paralyzing the military installations in southeastern China, making the PLA quite jealous and afraid to start the war lightly; this is also the PLA�s active reconnaissance Search for the main cause of the spectrum of Wanjian projectiles.

As of 2021 Xiongji E and Yunfeng were still "extremely classified" and had never been exposed to the public, so the outside world cannot get a glimpse of their appearance. The Wanjian "Ten Thousand Sword Bullet" was declassified when former President Ma Ying-jeou was in power and was publicly displayed at the Taipei Aerospace Exhibition. For the first time, the public saw weapons that could attack China.

The Wanjian bomb was a research and development project of the National Zhongshan Academy of Sciences in 2004 under the codename "Wanjian Project". It was mounted on the Jingguo fighter plane as an off-line-of-sight anti-runway cluster cruise missile to attack China. It was specially used to destroy airports. The runway to paralyze the airport�s take-off and landing functions. In addition, the large-scale destruction using its cluster bombs can also be used to destroy radars, Beidou satellite platforms, gathering places for PLA personnel and materials, and even gathering places for PLAN ships. In order to improve the air force's long-range strike capability, the Taiwan military has worked hard. With no hope of purchasing a new American F-16, it can only do everything possible to improve the weapon configuration of its self-produced "Jing Guo" fighter. According to a September 2010 report by Taiwan�s �China Times�, the Kuomintang �legislator� Lin Yufang revealed that the �Wanjian� cluster bomb independently developed by Taiwan�s �Chinese Academy of Sciences� has passed the air force�s initial operational evaluation in 2010, forming a combat capability and can be equipped with �Economy� in the future. The "National" fighter will be used to destroy and paralyze the opponent's airfields, ports or radar positions and other military facilities.

It is said that the "Wanjian" projectile developed by Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" has completed the initial operational evaluation. Once the "Jingguo" fighter upgrade plan is completed, the two can be used in combination. The "China Times" article stated that the "Wanjian" projectile is similar to the US AGM-154 combined long-range attack ammunition, with a range of up to 600 kilometers, which is the longest range of the Taiwan military's existing air-to-ground weapons. The Taiwan military said that the "Ten Thousand Sword" bomb contains hundreds of sub-munitions and is a reliable weapon for attacking airport runways, troop staging areas, or missile positions.

In addition, Taiwan�s �Central News Agency� quoted Lin Yufang as saying that the �Ten Thousand Sword� bomb is a weapon system developed by the Taiwan military at nearly NT$3 billion and took several years to develop. Although it looks similar to the US AGM-154, it is because It was developed late, and many designs that meet Taiwan's combat requirements were added, and some of its performance even exceeded AGM-154. The Taiwan military also revealed that in order to mount the "Ten Thousand Swords", it will invest funds to improve the performance of the "Jing Kuo" fighter, so that it has the capabilities of "long-range suppression operations" and "air defense suppression operations."

Because of the confidence in the performance of the "Wanjian" bomb, the Taiwan military believes that it can not only greatly improve the penetration capability of fighter jets, but it can even compete with the S-300 series air defense missiles. An article in the "China Times" stated that the Taiwan Air Force has been hoping to purchase US-made F-16C/D fighter jets with AGM-154 joint long-range attack ammunition, so as to conduct a preemptive "source strike" against "enemy" forces without going deep into the theater. ". However, the F-16C/D arms purchase case has been blocked, and the plan to equip it with AGM-154 is gone.

After the self-produced "Ten Thousand Sword" bombs matured, the Taiwan military believed that it had "greatly increased combat power" and had the ability to counter the PLA's advanced air defense missiles. Lin Yufang said that the mainland has deployed S-300PMU-1/2 air defense missiles along the southeast coast. Taiwan�s military must take great risks to cross the air defense firepower network if it wants to engage in �source strikes,� but the Taiwan Air Force was only equipped with conventional bombs. , Gasoline bombs and AGM-65 "Mavericks" missiles with a range of 28 kilometers, risky surprise attacks are definitely not worth the gain. Therefore, he believes that after the "Ten Thousand Swords" bombs are installed, Taiwan military fighters can cooperate with other fighters, electronic warfare systems and Xiongfeng 2E missiles. They only need to fly over the strait to suppress the southeast of the mainland with the "Ten Thousand Swords" various military targets along the coast.

After the successful research and development in 2010, with the performance improvement of the Jingguo fighter, the Jingguo fighter wing in Taichung and Tainan can be mounted and fired. It is understood that the National Army began to produce the "Ten Thousand Sword Ammunition" combat readiness ammunition in 2015. Before firing verification in 2017, two to three combat readiness ammunition were selected for execution. The average cost of each missile was nearly more than 100 million.

In recent years, the tension between the two sides of the strait has continued to rise. It has also been reported that the PLA plans to take down Dongsha Island, which has made the Air Force�s Penghu Magong base tighter. Therefore, the Ministry of National Defense has deployed one of the offensive weapons, which is one of the attack weapons, into the station by means of forward deployment. At Magong Base, President Tsai let the Wanjian bombs come to light when he guided the Penghu garrison on September 22. The general of the national army revealed that this move is to tell the Communist army "Don't mess around!"

The Wanjian projectile has a range of more than 200 kilometers, and Penghu is located east of the middle line of the strait. If a Jingguo fighter plane carries 2 Wanjian projectiles on the central line of the strait, as long as the CCP moves rashly, the Shanghai base of the PLA Air Force in the Eastern Theater Both the Fuzhou base and Shuimen Airport will be our targets. Officials from the Ministry of National Defense said that as long as two to four ten thousand sword projectiles are needed, the Communist Army�s airport will not be able to take off and land military aircraft within a short period of time, achieving the effect of deterring the PLA. Wanjian bombs can be divided into two modes: high-altitude attack and medium-low-altitude attack. Among them, the high-altitude attack mode is launched by the Jingguo fighter at an altitude of 20,000 feet, and its flight distance can be greater than 200 kilometers, mostly to attack the PLA. Airport-based. As for the medium and low altitude method, the Jingguo fighter jet is still launched at an altitude of 7,000 feet, with a flying distance of less than 200 kilometers, and is mainly aimed at important military targets along the coast of China.

Taiwan island's air force on 27 Janaury 2021 conducted a series of exercises, including showcasing a new missile and threatening to attack the Chinese mainland, with mainland experts saying the display of the weapon wrongly boosted the courage of secessionists, and risked accidents amid ongoing exercises by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) near the island. They also said the missile would not even be used if a war breaks out. Media on the island of Taiwan reported that the island's air force held a series of exercises in Taitung on the day, displaying to the media for the first time the Wan Chien missile carried by the IDF fighter jet, as the PLA has been sending warplanes to the island's self-proclaimed southwestern air defense identification zone over the past few months.

However, mainland military analysts said the missile poses an insignificant threat to the PLA, as the PLA will not allow its launch. The IDF fighter jets, the launch platforms of the Wan Chien missiles, would be shot down by the PLA before they leave their airfields if a war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, as the PLA will seize complete air superiority, Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times 27 Janaury 2021. No matter how good the missile is, it is useless if the launch platform is destroyed, Song said.

Even if the Taiwan military manages to launch some missiles, they can still be intercepted by PLA air defense forces, since this type of missile mainly glides in the air at only low speeds and is easily picked up and locked onto by radars, Beijing-based military expert Wei Dongxu told the Global Times.