The Ministry of National Defense is sending military personnel to the US next year to ensure that the delivery of the FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missiles it has procured would be on schedule.
The ministry initially planned to spend NT$17 billion (US$531.4 million) to procure 500 Stinger missiles from the US from 2017 to next year to bolster the military’s air defense capabilities. It later purchased an additional 1,985 missiles in the wake of growing military threats from China.
The additional procurement would increase the budget to about NT$69 billion.
Photo: Military News Agency via AP
The ministry’s budget proposal, which has been submitted to the Legislative Yuan, showed that the first batch of 500 Stingers should be delivered by the end of next year.
The additional 1,985 Stinger missiles should be delivered by 2031, the ministry said.
The ministry also said that the army would dispatch representatives to the US to control the progression and budgeting of its various contracts and to ensure that military equipment would be delivered on time and meet certain quality standards.
The representatives would function as liaison, the ministry said.
The army and the navy would dispatch representatives to the US to participate in a meeting on technical issues involved in the use of Stinger missiles, it said.
The portable air-defense system, with an effective shooting range of about 4,800m, would enable troops to have high mobility. Once procured, it would be used by the army, the marines, military police and troops stationed on Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島) and Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島).
Meanwhile, the army is to allocate NT$8.36 million to the Armaments Bureau from next year to 2028 to build new 150mm cannon barrels which would be added to M60A3 tanks, to procure 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks and to build new Clouded Leopard armored vehicles, the ministry’s budget proposal showed.
The nation has 460 M60A3 tanks that have been in active duty since the 1990s.
Aside from building new cannon barrels, the ministry in 2022 tasked the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to upgrade the tanks’ gun control, firing control and sighting systems. The project cost NT$444.01 million.
It has also budgeted about NT$7.2 billion to purchase “AVDS-1790-8CR” engines and replace old ones installed on M60A3 tanks. The procurement is to be completed by 2028.
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