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.
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