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Defense official says blue arms budget insufficient

A Ministry of National Defense (MND) official said yesterday that Taiwan would be unable to buy eight diesel submarines from the US if the legislature cut the special arms purchase budget to about NT$380 billion (US$12.3 billion), as the pan-blue camp has suggested.

Hu Chen-pu (胡鎮埔), director-general of the Political Warfare Department, said that "if the legislature passes a special arms budget of less than NT$400 billion, it means we would have to give up the proposed purchase of eight diesel submarines, which the MND cannot accept."

People First Party (PFP) Legislator Shen Chih-huei (沈智慧) said that the PFP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have reached a consensus that they would support an arms purchase bill of NT$300 billion to NT$380 billion, but that they would block any budget higher than NT$400 billion.

Meanwhile, a Chinese-language newspaper yesterday quoted an anonymous source saying that when PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) met US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless in Washington DC in January, Soong clearly said that the pan-blue camp cannot accept a NT$610.8 billion arms bill, but could accept a bill of between NT$300 billion and NT$400 billion.

The report said Soong told US officials that the process of forming a submarine force would be too slow to cope with the dynamic situation in the Taiwan Strait in the coming years, so he suggested that the US sell Taiwan other military items which could meet urgent defense needs.

The report said that some in US defense circles are concerned that the submarine deal has progressed slowly in part because the US has not built conventional diesel-powered submarines for more than 40 years.

Hu yesterday told the Taipei Times that the MND regards a submarine blockade by China, and a not a missile attack, as the biggest threat to Taiwan, because the country relies so heavily on international trade and secure sea lanes.

A submarine force is therefore crucial for national security, so that Taiwan could counter a blockade of its ports and nearby sea lanes.

The ability to break China's blockade would increase the costs to China of any military action, and thus serve as a strong deterrent.

He added that the nation has been lobbying the US for the submarines for 11 years.

Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) has announced that the NT$610.8 billion weapons procurement expenditure could be cut down to NT$590 billion to reflect the recent slide of the US dollar, and even reduced to as little as NT$480 billion if the eight submarines are built in the US instead of here.

The biggest-ever weapons procurement plan in the nation's history would purchase three major items: three PAC-3 missile batteries, 12 P-3C sub-hunting aircraft and the eight diesel-powered submarines.
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