US officials revealed on Friday that the Bush administration is ready to sell Aegis-equipped destroyers to Taiwan to boost its naval air and missile defense capability, the Liberty Times reported yesterday.
"The Bush administration is expected to announce the sale of Aegis destroyers within the next few months,"the Liberty Times quoted an anonymous US official.
Although the sale is likely to be approved soon, the advanced warships won't be delivered to Taiwan until 2010. Hence, the US believes that the purchase of four Kidd-class destroyers can strengthen Taiwan's defense weaknesses in the next few years.
The Ministry of Defense has already budgeted the planned arms purchase. But many in the legislature strongly oppose the purchase of the second-hand destroyers, saying that Taiwan doesn't need these mothballed warships.
Back in April, senior DPP lawmaker Liang Mu-yung (
In response to the case, the US official said that the Bush administration has no intention to force Taiwan to purchase the Kidds. However, the navy's air defense capability is relatively weak at present. In addition, the US has stopped production of the "standard one missiles," which are fitted on major Taiwanese warships.
"The four Kidd-class destroyers -- armed with `standard II missiles' -- is the best option for Taiwan to solve it's defense problems today," the US official said.
Derek Mitchell, a senior research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also told the Liberty Times that the US government has decided to sell Kidds to Taiwan simply because they have outstanding air defense capability.
According to Mitchell, it's easier for Taiwan to integrate the four warships into the navy's arms system. Moreover, the navy can practice how to operate the highly sophisticated Aegis destroyers on the Kidds.
The Kidds, built in late 1970s, will cost about NT$56.8 billion, according to the defense ministry's budget request for the next financial year. They will also cost an estimated NT$300 million a year to maintain.
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