Taiwan has signaled to US officials that it plans to move swiftly to complete a purchase of 66 new F-16 jets once US congressional foreign relations committees complete their review of the deal this month, a US Department of State official said.
The department on Aug. 20 formally notified the US Congress that it approved the sale, which includes munitions, defensive electronics and a top-of-the line fire-control radar that would allow precision-guided missiles and bombs to be launched from greater distances.
Once the deal is approved by Congress — and there has been no sign it will be blocked — Taiwan must submit a formal Letter of Offer and Acceptance that would be translated into a signed contract with delivery dates.
“According to our counterparts in Taiwan and the Taiwan representative’s office [in the US], they anticipate a quick move on their part” to finish the F-16 deal, US Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Rene Clarke Cooper said in an interview on Thursday after a breakfast meeting with reporters.
“If we are talking about the F-16s [alone] then the indicators are that’s a relatively quick turnaround from Taipei,” he said.
China has strongly objected to the sale of the jets built by Lockheed Martin.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) last month said that if US arms sales to Taiwan are not stopped “the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the US will have to bear all the consequences.”
Congress has already approved a separate potential transaction for US$2 billion to sell Taiwan 108 M1A2 Abrams tanks, but no contracts have been announced for that deal.
“With every partner, we’re always looking at not only at their security requirements, we are looking at how they address it at home” in terms of budgets, Cooper said.
Negotiating a contract sometimes takes months and does not always result in a sale, but the Executive Yuan on Sept. 5 approved a special budget bill for the F-16 purchases, so the US approval process is in sync with Taiwan’s budget cycle.
“I strongly favor this sale going forward as quickly as possible,” US Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said in an e-mail on Friday. “I remain concerned, however, that the administration created the appearance that our security commitment to Taiwan is up for negotiation with Beijing over US-China trade issues.”
The US, previously wary of antagonizing China, has not sold advanced fighter jets to Taiwan since then-US president George H.W. Bush announced the sale of 150 F-16s in 1992.
The administration of former US president Barack Obama rejected a similar Taiwanese request for new jets, but agreed to update its existing fleet.
Even if Taiwan moves quickly to complete the F-16 deal, there is a question as to how soon they could be delivered. Taiwan would be the fourth customer for the latest model of Lockheed’s iconic fighter, called the Block 70. They are being assembled at the contractor’s new facility in Greenville, South Carolina, which opened in April.
The first Block 70 jets are scheduled to roll off the Greenville line in late 2021, bound for Bahrain. Slovakia and Bulgaria are the other customers with orders.
It takes 36 to 39 months for the first aircraft to be delivered after a contract is signed, depending on customer requirements, Lockheed data showed.
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
RSS