As the US military pulls out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon is reportedly seeking to sell some of the weapons used in those conflicts to its allies — and Taiwan is studying the possibility of acquiring M1 Abrams main battle tanks.
Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) told local media yesterday that efforts to acquire used battle tanks from the US were currently under evaluation.
Taiwan will be joining a number of US allies who will try to grab what is available and it remains to be seen whether it will be able to make the cut.
“A lot of issues need to be considered. To name just a few: Its logistic support, if they could work under the current maintenance system for M60s,” he said, referring to one of the main tanks currently in service.
About 480 M60A3 tanks acquired in the 1990s, as well as 450 M-48H and 300 M-48A5 medium tanks, comprise the Army’s modern battle tank force, which also includes the CM11 (modified M48H turrets mated to M60 hulls) and CM12 (modified CM11 turrets mated to M48A3 hulls) variants.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Chao Shih-chang (趙世璋) told the legislature recently that the Army was seeking to procure 200 tanks to bolster its forces, adding that the great bulk would be deployed in Hukou Township (湖口), Hsinchu County, which is home to the 584th Armored Brigade.
The M1 Abrams, which entered service in the 1980s and played a major role in ground operations during Desert Storm in 1991, would add firepower to the 30 AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters the Army is in the process of procuring from the US. Its main use would be in coastal defense against an amphibious assault.
This would not be the first time Taiwan modernized its forces through the acquisition of excess defense articles from the US.
It procured 12 P-3C “Orion” maritime patrol aircraft from the US for US$1.9 billion in 2007.
Two Osprey-class coastal mine-hunting ships, the decommissioned USS Oriole and USS Falcon, which are scheduled to enter service this year, were also acquired as excess defense articles as part of a US$6.4 billion arms package announced in January 2010.
Surplus defense articles have the advantage of coming at a fraction of the price of a new platform, though they oftentimes incur major costs for new fire control systems, software and electronics.
Taiwan’s efforts to procure the 70-tonne main battle tank go back to the early 2000s, when it requested M1-A2s from the US, a request that Washington turned down.
Critics at the time said Taiwan’s mountainous terrain was unsuitable for the heavy tank, adding that given the maneuverability limits, lighter, medium wheeled tanks would probably be a better option.
Lo said the Army had yet to receive a formal notification from the US.
Additional reporting by AFP
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS