American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt told Taipei that despite enormous pressure from China, the US continues to give serious consideration to selling it advanced F-16 fighter aircraft.
“It is something that hasn’t been approved yet, but it also hasn’t been turned down,” he said following a three-day arms conference in Cambridge, Maryland.
The conference closed on Tuesday night with many of the senior participants privately expressing optimism that Taiwan’s request to buy the fighters would be approved by US President Barack Obama in the next two years.
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, which organized the conference, also said the US National Security Council (NSC) was conducting a “broad and comprehensive review” of Taiwan’s defense needs.
Other US studies have recently concluded that Taiwan’s request to buy 66 of the fighters was justified and necessary to keep its air force as a credible deterrent to Chinese attack.
Asked if the US-Taiwan relationship was “on track,” Burghardt said it was “in good shape.”
He said the conference, conducted behind closed doors, had provided an opportunity for government representatives from the two sides to meet and discuss defense issues.
There was “lots of interaction and lots of talk,” he said.
Burghardt also said there were ongoing meetings, “some of them publicized and some of them not,” in which defense issues were discussed between the US and Taiwan.
Hammond-Chambers said the NSC review involved interagency coordination and covered Taiwan’s air force, navy and army.
It was a “serious reassessment” and that it would have an impact on future arms sales, he said.
In closing remarks, Hammond-Chambers strongly indicated that he thought the review would result in a green light for F-16 sales.
US officials at the conference said during the closed-door sessions that Taiwan continued to have “strategic meaning” and remained a “strategic asset” to the US.
Others at the conference said Taiwan should be seen in a regional context and not just as part of the US-China-Taiwan triangular relationship.
Meanwhile, Air Force spokesman Pan Kung-hsiao (潘恭孝) said in Taipei yesterday the government was allocating money for possible US help to ugrade its fleet of F-16A/Bs acquired in the 1990s.
Pan’s comments came amid media reports that the Obama administration had agreed to upgrade Taiwan’s fleet of 146 F-16A/Bs.
Pan said that while notification had yet to be given, the Air Force would ask the legislature to provide funding for the upgrade in 2012.
However, he said that acquisition of the more advanced F-16C/Ds remained the military’s top priority because that aircraft was better suited to Taiwan’s defense.
“Our primary interest remains the procurement of F-16C/Ds rather than the upgrade of F-16A/Bs,” he said.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS