The Ministry of National Defense and defense industry insiders yesterday denied a report in a Chinese-language newspaper that the military has decided to purchase 72 AH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopters from Boeing.
The ministry said that no decision had been made regarding the procurement.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, industry insiders also denied the report, saying that Bell Helicopter had already reached an agreement to supply Taiwan with the AH-1Z King Cobra attack helicopter.
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The United Evening News reported the alleged deal with Boeing on the front page of yesterday's edition. The paper cited unnamed sources for the information in the report.
The deal is worth NT$90 billion (US$2.72 billion), according to the report, and a budget will be submitted for approval to the Legislative Yuan next year, with delivery of the helicopters to begin in 2007.
The report, however, contradicts a number of previous articles that have said Boeing's rival, Bell Helicopter, was on track to win the multi-billion dollar procurement deal.
According to an article last month in the defense magazine Jane's Defence Weekly, Bell received a formal request from Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau to produce the AH-1Z King Cobra in cooperation with Taiwan's state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corp.
According to the Jane's report, which cited Bell Taiwan's vice president of operations, Jeff Cromar, as a source, the AH-64D was rejected by the government because Boeing refused to allow co-production of the helicopter with Taiwan.
As Taiwan's army currently operates the AH-1W Super Cobra, an earlier variant of the King Cobra, many defense officials have been pushing for Taiwan to stick with Bell Helicopter to reduce maintenance costs, the United Evening News said in its report.
When asked about the report yesterday, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Liu (劉得詮) of the ministry's Office of the Military Spokesman cited an official statement that said the Army General Headquarters was pursuing future acquisition of weapons systems necessary for Taiwan's defense, but that no decision had been reached at this time.
The AH-64D is designed primarily for ground attack and anti-tank missions, and is equipped with a 30mm machine gun and hellfire anti-armor missiles.
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