No. Still 2018-2020 time frame.

 

In the meantime, F-16C/D is still denied.

But the F-16 would invite the same response from China for very little capability.

The F-35 even in the 2020 time frame would be a true equilizer and a game changer .

In fact I would reccomend that a combination of HAS (Thats hardened air shelters for those of us who live in the back country) with F-35B be placed all around the PACRIM  theatre.

This woudl make it nearly impossible to shut down U.S. air operations.

The F-35 is only a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. You still have the  area access denial, strategy, national deligitimization (the Tibet gambit) political blackmail, economic blackmail, and at least the threat of nuclear blackmail to worry about, as well the usual PRC island vacationer (amphibious invasiom), and Sukhoi problems, and other tomfoolery that the fanbois focus upon 

 

Taiwan needs a lot of help. F-35s are simply not enough to begin to solve all the problems. A genuine navy might help with some of the more blatant militarist PRC blackmail stuff.  (<cough> submarines <cough>). Nothing says back off to the PRC bandits like the idea that their SLOCs might be cut and their Africa rape goes nowhere, if they get too frisky. Then there is the air defense problem and denial of the straits to PRC access that F-35s cannot really solve, and the need to hold the PRC bandits, themselves, hostages to fortune to stop the ceaseless economic blackmail. In other words not only does the 2nd Artillery and the PLAN have to be neutralized, but also the illegitimate totalitarian imperialist regime that lies behind those jokers.   

 

H.