The US has given the nod to the sale of four Kidd-class destroyers to Taiwan's navy to beef up the island's defense capabilities, reports said yesterday.
Taiwan, determined to improve its hardware in the face of continuing military threats from China, is also seeking to acquire US-built Spruance-class destroyers, local media said.
"The US Department of Defense has in principle agreed to sell the four Kidd-class missile destroyers," local reports said.
The report comes as Beijing prepares to take delivery of its second Sovremenney-class destroyer from Moscow. The first one was delivered to China in February.
The destroyer is shortly expected to sail through the Taiwan Strait en route to the Qingdao naval base in northern China. The Russia-built destroyer is armed with 24 SS-N-22 Sunburn supersonic cruise missiles and sea-skimmers.
Taiwan's defense ministry declined to comment on the report.
The paper said Taipei is pressing for the destroyer to be kitted out with Standard II air defense missiles, Harpoon ship-to-ship missiles, Phalanx close-in weapons weaponry, MK-46 torpedoes, and anti-submarine rockets.
If realized, the Kidd-class destroyer would be the largest and most powerful in the Taiwanese navy. The paper said Taiwan also wants to buy US-built Spruance- class destroyers, but did not specify the number.
The US navy has a fleet of 24 Spruance-class destroyers, while seven others have been decommissioned following the acquisition of AEGIS-equipped destroyers.
Beijing had warned Washington about selling Taiwan the AEGIS system, which could have been used as a platform for an anti-missile system developed by the US -- better known as the Theatre Missile Defense system.
Last April, Washington postponed the sale of the destroyer to Taipei for fear of offending Beijing.
Washington, however, remains Taiwan's leading arms supplier despite shifting official diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
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