Washington is evaluating a transfer of weapons systems requested by Taiwan, according to a copy of a report by the Ministry of National Defense (MND) that is to be submitted to lawmakers tomorrow.
Asked whether the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile would be among the weapons systems, the ministry refused to comment, but said that it would not rule out announcing the specifics later this year.
The ministry’s domestically sourced high-priority military investments include submarines, next-generation light frigates, rescue ships, advanced trainer jets and infantry fighting vehicles, the report said.
Photo: screen grab from the Web site of the US Air Force
Planned deals include F-16A and F-16B jet performance upgrades, navigation and targeting pods, precision-guided munitions, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (known as HIMARS), Harpoon coastal defense missile systems and MQ-9B drones, it said.
Last year, the ministry told Chinese-language media that it expressed interest in US-made AGM-158 missiles, which can be launched from jets and have a range of 370km.
The US probably had concerns that the transfer of long-range weapons could provoke China, Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
However, China’s increasingly mature aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships pose a growing security threat, helping Taipei make the case for obtaining the missiles, he said.
Aegis Combat System-equipped warships, precision-guided munitions and stealth technologies might become necessary for Taiwan’s defense, and the ministry should consider requesting them, he said.
Meanwhile, the navy is on track to procure nine more Tuo Chiang-class corvettes, so that it would have 12 warships of that class by 2026, the report said.
The shipbuilding project is funded via the Sea and Air Combat Power Improvement Special Budget of NT$236.9 billion (US$7.46 billion), it said, adding that the remaining 10 ships on the order would cost more than NT$69.2 billion.
The class’ lead ship, the ROCS Tuo Chiang, has been in service since 2014, while the second ship, the ROCS Fu Chiang, was christened on Sept. 21 following significant design changes that increased the class’ tonnage and capabilities.
Tuo Chiang-class corvettes built after the improvements have a displacement of 685 tonnes, and can carry 16 Hai Chien II air defense missiles, eight Hisung Feng II and four Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missiles. Each corvette requires an estimated 17 months to build.
The contract to construct the ships was awarded to Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船).
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS