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.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
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