The US Department of Defense (DOD) has taken action to make improvements after “unserviceable and poorly packaged” equipment and munitions were sent to Taiwan under the US Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), the department said on Friday.
The PDA is a process under which the US can send equipment and weapons from existing stocks to its allied partners in crisis situations.
In July last year, the administration of US President Joe Biden authorized as much as US$345 million in defense articles and services to be sent to Taiwan under the presidential drawdown.
Photo: Screen grab from US Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s Web site
“Taiwan is a key security cooperation partner, and the US government is committed to ensuring that equipment delivered to this partner is sufficient for operational use,” department spokesman Pete Nguyen said.
The department would learn from this experience, which was the first of its kind, and “has taken action to improve its PDA process for Taiwan,” Nguyen said.
The response came after the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealed in its report last week that the department had provided shipments of unserviceable and poorly packaged equipment and munitions to Taiwan from November last year to March.
MOLDY BODY ARMOR
“We appreciate the perspective this report brings to a complex and unique issue for a critical security cooperation partner and anticipate the positive impact it will have on the department moving forward,” Nguyen said.
The department in December last year delivered to Taiwan 120 water damaged pallets, which contained wet and moldy body armor, according to personnel from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy, the OIG report said.
The pallets remained at Travis Air Force Base for more than three months because the US Army did not begin initiating requests for Special Airlift Assignment Mission flights to Taiwan until December, the OIG said.
Taiwanese authorities had to spend weeks “unpacking, drying and inventorying the wet and moldy equipment,” it said.
REVIEW
In the same month, the Ministry of National Defense issued a letter to the AIT stating that Taiwan received 2.7 million rounds of ammunition from the department, including some that were expired, in a mix of original, loose and incorrect packaging, it said.
“The DOD did not effectively or efficiently implement accountability and quality controls for items delivered to Taiwan,” it said in the report, adding that those actions “inhibit the DOD’s ability to achieve established security cooperation goals and may lead to loss of partner confidence in the United States.”
The ministry on Friday said the shipments of equipment and munitions have been jointly reviewed and handled accordingly by Taiwan and the US, without elaborating.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS