“Both the US and Taiwan must determine which actions to take in support of Taiwan’s national security, without caving to pressure from China. Regularizing the Taiwan arms sales process will in the long term make support for Taiwan’s defense needs more transparent and stable,” it said.
“The US Department of Defense is due to submit to Congress a second report by the end of 2010 examining the current balance of airpower in the Taiwan Strait and making recommendations for US action,” Hammond-Chambers said. “This will include consideration of the impact of replacement fighters for Taiwan’s aging air force. F-16s are the only platform under consideration for Taiwan, but the F-16 manufacturing line will begin to wind down in July of 2011. This leaves a narrow 10-month window for a decision on making the requested 66 F-16s available to Taiwan.”
“Taiwan is also looking to upgrade its current fleet of 145 F-16s, and in the absence of political obstruction a congressional notification is due for this program some time in the winter of 2010-2011,” he said.
The Chinese believe Taiwan should be denied access to replacement fighters for their aging F-5s and Mirage-2000s, recognizing the serious detrimental effect such a denial would have on Taiwan’s military readiness, he said.
A senior White House source refused to comment on the issue.
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