Washington informed Taiwan that it has approved a package of up to US$619 million for equipment and munitions related to F-16 jets, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
The US Department of State notified the US Congress that it has approved the sale, which is likely to pass a vote in Congress within in a month, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.
The defense ministry expressed its “sincere gratitude” to the US for approving the sale.
Photo: AP
The package would provide 100 AGM-88B high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARM), 23 HARM training missiles, 200 AIM-120C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM), four AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM guidance systems and 26 LAU-129 multi-purpose launchers, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.
Other munitions and equipment in the package include LAU-118A missile launchers with an aircraft launcher interface computer, HARM missile containers, AIM-120 control sections and containers, AIM-120C captive air training missiles, dummy air training missiles, integration and test support and equipment, and other related elements of logistical and program support, it added.
The main contractors of the missiles would be Raytheon Technologies Corp and Lockheed Martin Corp.
The defense ministry said that the air force has completed combat capability assessments with the AGM-88B and AIM-120C-8 missiles, which are able to further strengthen the defense capabilities protecting Taiwan’s airspace.
The sale also demonstrates Taiwan’s ability to predict the nation’s combat needs and strengthen its armed forces accordingly, it added.
Taiwan is “preparing for war, but not asking for war,” and is determined to boost its self-defense capabilities, the defense ministry said.
The sale is highly welcome, MOFA spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) told a news conference yesterday.
The foreign ministry thanked the US for fulfilling its promise in the Taiwan Relations Act and the “six assurances,” he said.
This is the first military sale announced this year by US President Joe Biden’s administration and the eighth in his term, Liu said.
The US continues to normalize arms sales to Taiwan, helping the nation to obtain defense equipment in a timely manner and enhance combat capabilities, he said.
In the face of China’s military expansion, Taiwan would continue to improve its self-defense capabilities and deepen its security relationship with the US, he said.
The sale comes as the defense ministry yesterday reported a second day of large-scale Chinese air force incursions into the nation’s air defense identification zone, with 21 aircraft spotted over 24 hours ending yesterday morning.
The aircraft, 17 J-10 fighters and four J-16 fighters, flew into the southwestern corner of the zone, a defense ministry graphic showed.
The J-10s, an older model that entered service two decades ago, flew closer to the Chinese coast than Taiwan’s, while the J-16s, a much newer and more advanced fighter, flew northeast of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), the graphic showed.
Taiwanese air force jets were sent to monitor the Chinese aircraft, the ministry said.
The ministry on Wednesday reported 19 Chinese aircraft flying in the zone.
None of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, although 10 Chinese aircraft crossed the line on Friday last week.
Additional reporting by Reuters
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS