Raytheon Co, the world’s largest missile maker, said Taiwan was close to signing a contract for three Patriot missile firing batteries and related equipment that the US agreed to sell to the country in January.
The order could be finalized as early as this year, after the legislature approves the accord, Sanjay Kapoor, vice president of Patriot programs, said in an interview at the Farnborough Air Show near London.
The offer, which is in addition to the US$1.1 billion order Raytheon announced in December, has gone to Taiwan and the company is awaiting the client’s approval, he said. The batteries made by Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon include radar and command-and-control equipment and are used to fire two different versions of Patriot anti-missile interceptors made both by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Corp. Lockheed makes the PAC-3 and Raytheon makes a version called the Guidance Enhanced Missile.
US President Barack Obama’s administration notified US Congress in January of its intention to sell Taiwan US$2.81 billion worth of Patriot anti-missile systems, including 114 PAC-3 missiles and the firing units made by Raytheon.
The US provides defensive armaments to Taiwan under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
In a report last week, the Ministry of National Defense said that China’s missile arsenal targeting Taiwan could reach 1,960 by the end of this year. Current estimates put the number of short-range DF-11 and DF-15 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan at between 1,300 and 1,500. The high number referred to in the ministry report likely includes DF-21 medium-range ballistic missiles as well as cruise missiles.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said in Washington on Tuesday that the “ambiguous message” he had received from the US was that if the US could not sell F-16C/D fighter aircraft to Taiwan for the moment, it would consider upgrading the capability of its older F-16A/Bs.
Lin, who is heading a delegation of Taiwanese lawmakers on a visit to the US capital, said Washington had yet to decide on Taiwan’s request to purchase either F-16C/D aircraft or diesel-electric submarines.
Lin said the Taiwanese government had never abandoned its desire to acquire diesel-electric submarines and had, in fact, earmarked funds to acquire them.
Because of the difficulties involved in the design and production of the submarines, however, Taiwan can decide whether to purchase them only after conducting a feasibility study and evaluating quotations, he said.
Since arriving in Washington on Sunday, the delegation has met US Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Shear at the US Department of State, Derek Mitchell, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense in charge of Asian and Pacific security affairs, and several senators and congressmen.
During the meetings, the US officials have expressed support for Taiwan’s efforts to seek international recognition, particularly its bid to join the International Civil Aviation Organization, Lin said.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS