Taiwan received a letter of acceptance (LOA) for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the US on Friday last week, which must be authorized by the Legislative Yuan and signed before March 26 to ensure the systems can be obtained on time, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today.
The HIMARS case is particularly time-sensitive and starting the schedule earlier would allow the systems to be obtained sooner, he said.
Further delays could have a significant impact, so the ministry hopes the legislature would authorize the signing as soon as possible, he added.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, AFP
The 82 HIMARS at a cost of US$4.05 billion were included in a US$11.1 billion arms package the US approved for Taiwan on Dec. 17.
That package also covered Javelin missiles, Altius-700M and Altius-600 drones, TOW missiles, M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, C5ISR integrated technology systems, Harpoon missile follow-on support and helicopter parts.
Five of these items are covered in the Executive Yuan’s special defense budget that has been repeatedly blocked by opposition parties in the legislature.
Taiwan has now received LOAs for four out of five of these items.
The Ministry of National Defense previously said it had received LOAs for the TOW missiles, Javelin anti-armor missiles and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers.
As those letters are valid until Sunday, the ministry said it hopes the Legislative Yuan would grant prior authorization for their signing.
The ministry is still awaiting an LOA for the Altius-700M and Altius-600 drones.
The offer expires if the buyer does not sign the LOA by the deadline, and the deal needs to be reviewed again.
LOAs specify the costs, authorizes the sale and outlines terms for foreign military sales.
A special budget of NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.31 billion) was proposed by the Cabinet to cover the acquisition of domestic and foreign-made weapons systems over the next eight years, but opposition parties have only approved NT$400 billion in funding for the purchase of weapons in the US$11.1 billion arms package.
However, finding agreement on the LOAs with upcoming deadlines may happen before the funding bills are reconciled.
A motion submitted by the Taiwan People's Party to authorize the ministry to sign the first three LOAs advanced to a second reading on Friday, but cross-caucus negotiations would have to be held for the motion to advance further.
Meanwhile, Koo also denied media reports that MQ-9B SeaGuardian drone deliveries had been delayed and said no weapons deliveries have been postponed due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Taiwan has ordered four MQ-9B surveillance drones from the US, originally scheduled for delivery last year.
The timeline has since been pushed back to this year and next.
Air force Chief of Staff Lee Ching-jan (李慶然) told the legislature in November that the first batch of MQ-9B drones is scheduled to arrive in the third quarter of this year.
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