The Ministry of National Defense yesterday confirmed that the army is seeking to buy M1A2 main battle tanks from the US, but it denied media reports that the US has agreed to the request.
The request to buy the M1A2s had been discussed between Taiwan military representatives and their US counterparts during this year's arms talk between the two countries in Washington in April, ministry spokesman Major General Huang Sui-sheng (
"The US has yet to say `yes' to the proposed deal. A recent report by a local newspaper that the US has agreed to sell the M1A2s to Taiwan is not true," Huang said.
Huang made the remarks at a routine ministerial press conference in response to inquiries from the press over whether the US has agreed upon the sale of M1A2s to Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the US Defense Department also denied that the US has agreed to sell the M1A2s to Taiwan, according to the Central News Agency.
The report Huang refuted as false was made by the United Daily News on Monday, which quoted anonymous defense sources as saying that the US has agreed in principle to sell the M1A2 to Taiwan but that it has yet to decide on the number of M1A2s to be sold to the nation.
The army initially requested to buy 48 M1A2s, each costing around US$4 million, but the number is subject to change depending on the final decision of the US, the newspaper said.
The US had sent a military delegation to Taiwan in September to evaluate the army's needs for M1A2s and other big-ticket weapon platforms such as the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter, it said. During its stay in Taiwan, the US military delegation viewed live combat maneuvers by the army's combined arms brigades, including the 542nd armored brigade, the 601st airborne brigade, and 862nd special operations brigade, to see how M1A2s and Apaches can meet the defense requirements of Taiwan's army.
The Taipei Times has reported twice over the past two months on the combat maneuvers, code-named "Vanguard Exercise," which the army held specially for the visiting US military delegation.
An army official, who was involved in the exercises, said the army is more interested in buying the Apache than the M1A2.
"An advanced attack helicopter like the Apache will have better survivability, more fire power, and much higher mobility in Taiwan battlefields. The M1A2 is not worth buying from a cost-effective perspective," the army official said.
"The army's plan for the future is to get an air arm for each of its armored brigades so it can have three-dimensional warfare capabilities. The army has a more urgent need to buy the Apache," he said.
"But if the US insists on selling the M1A2 to Taiwan, we may as well accept the offer since the M1A2 is still one of the best main battle tanks in the world," he said.
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