The US has announced plans to sell Taiwan's air force three air traffic control radar sets, which are expected to be installed at airfields to provide better radar-approach control systems.
The cost of the three AN/MPN-14 radar sets could be as high as US$108 million, according to the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) estimates. The agency is the US Defense Department's division that arranges all foreign military sales.
The Pentagon officially notified Congress of the sale on Tuesday. Under US law, Congress has 30 days to disapprove the sale. If it does not object, the US can formally offer the radar sets to Taiwan.
Although the air force -- through the Taipei Economic and Cultural Relations Office in Washington -- requested the sale, it is unclear whether it will come up with the money for the systems, according to US military officials.
The radar sets have a basic range of 111km, but can identify an aircraft carrying the correct radio transmitter as far as 370km away. In the US, the radar is used mainly by the Air National Guard for domestic air-traffic control.
The radar set's main strength is guiding incoming aircraft for final approach and landing, rather than identifying enemy attack aircraft, US officials say.
Taiwan's need for the AN/MPN-14 sets was identified by an intensive study of the nation's land defense needs conducted by the Hawaii-based US Pacific Command last year. It was not part of the massive arms sales package agreed to by the George W. Bush administration in April last year.
The study, whose results have not yet been made public, also dealt with the request by Taiwan's army for Abrams M1 tanks, but no such sale has been announced. Some US officials question Tai-wan's need for the tanks, given Taipei's limited military budget.
"By the time they use those tanks, they've already lost," one US official said, referring to the utility of the large tanks in case of any attack by China.
The sale of the radar sets, which are made by ITT Industries in Van Nuys, California, will not affect the basic military balance in the region, the DSCA said. Taiwan will have no difficulty absorbing the equipment into its armed forces, it added.
"The sale is consistent with United States law and policy as expressed in Public Law 96-8," the DSCA said. That law is the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.
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