The navy has postponed its decision on whether to buy 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft that the US agreed to sell to Taiwan last year, according to defense sources.
Some naval leaders argue that the navy does not have to buy submarines and the aircraft at the same time since they have overlapping anti-submarine functions.
Another concern is that the navy still has 26 S-2T anti-submarine aircraft in service, although these aircraft have already been in service for 36 years.
The combat-readiness ratio of Taiwan's anti-submarine aircraft has been low in recent years. The navy admitted at the end of 2000 that only six of these aircraft were ready for operations any one time.
The navy plans to raise the combat-readiness ratio of its anti-submarine aircraft to 100 percent next year, a naval official said.
If the goal can be achieved, the navy will not need to buy the new aircraft, the official said.
"But the biggest problem now is that these anti-submarine aircraft have been out of production and it is very hard to get a steady supply of spare parts for them," he said.
"If the problems were solved, the aircraft could be expected to serve for as many years as we want them to," he said.
"The aircraft are indeed old, but they were all upgraded in the early 1990s."
Lockheed Martin, the US manufacturer of the P-3Cs, says that the 12 aircraft could improve Taiwan's maritime patrols and strengthen its anti-submarine capabilities.
The company also stressed that the 12 planes are equivalent to 34 of Taiwan's aircraft, providing "greater strength in fewer numbers." The P-3Cs have a larger weapons load and better mobility than Taiwan's current anti-submarine aircraft.
The US government agreed to sell the aircraft to Taiwan last April during annual arms talks between the US and Taiwan.
Washington also agreed to sell several other "big ticket" weapons, including eight diesel-powered submarines and four Kidd-class destroyers.
The navy would prefer to buy the submarines, not the P-3Cs, defense sources said. Under such circumstances, the plan to buy the aircraft is very likely to be shelved or even scrapped, they said.
The air force had used the earlier version of the plane, the P-3A, in the 1960s.
The air force retired those aircraft before it purchased newer models, which were later upgraded and redesignated as S-2Ts.
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