Description

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Picture Courtesy: JAPANTIMES

Context

Facing military pressure from China, Taiwan announced the development and deployment of an indigenous, multi-layered air defense system called the "T-DOME."

What is T-DOME Air Defence System?

The T-DOME (Taiwan Dome) is a proposed next-generation, multi-layered integrated air defence system being developed by Taiwan.

The system is a core part of Taiwan's strategy to build a robust "safety net" against escalating military threats from China.

The development is being led by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), Taiwan's primary defense R&D institution.

Key Objectives and Capabilities of T-DOME

Inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, the T-DOME is designed to be far more comprehensive.

Its goal is to create a unified and intelligent network to detect, track, and intercept a wide spectrum of aerial threats.

Multi-Layered Defence: It will integrate short, medium, and long-range air defence assets to create overlapping fields of fire, capable of engaging threats at different altitudes and ranges.
Integrated Command and Control: Command-and-control system for a seamless "sensor-to-shooter" link, fusing data from various radars and sensors for a single, integrated air picture.
Diverse Threat Spectrum: T-DOME is being designed to counter:

Ballistic and cruise missiles
Fighter jets, including stealth aircraft
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones
Loitering munitions

Conclusion

Taiwan's T-DOME Air Defence System is a massive, strategic investment toward a fully integrated, networked, multi-layered defence architecture, boosting Indo-Pacific deterrence and resilience against modern aerial threats.

Source: JAPANTIMES

Attempt Daily Quiz

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q. With reference to the "T-DOME" air defence system, consider the following statements:

It is designed to counter short-range, unguided rockets, similar to Israel's Iron Dome.
It is a key component of Taiwan's defence policy..

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A) 1 only

B) 2 only

C) Both 1 and 2

D) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: B

Explanation:

Statement 1 is incorrect: The T-DOME counters a wide range of sophisticated threats (jets, drones, ballistic/cruise missiles), not just short-range unguided rockets like the Iron Dome.

Statement 2 is correct: The T-DOME is a crucial part of Taiwan's overall defense policy, aligning with the "Porcupine Strategy" for asymmetric warfare to deter potential invasion by China.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The T-DOME is a comprehensive, multi-layered air defence system being indigenously developed by Taiwan. It aims to create a protective "safety net" against a wide spectrum of aerial threats, including fighter jets, drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.

While both are air defence systems, their scope is very different. The Iron Dome is a point-defence system primarily designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells. T-DOME is a national-level, integrated system designed to counter a much broader and more sophisticated range of threats from a near-peer state actor like China.

The "Porcupine Strategy" is Taiwan's national defence policy of asymmetric warfare. Instead of trying to match China's massive military strength symmetrically, it focuses on building credible, lethal, and survivable defensive capabilities to make a potential invasion so difficult and costly for China that it is deterred from attempting it.