Over the next 10 years, the military is prepared to allot around NT$600 billion for the procurement of a variety of weapon systems from the US and another NT$100 billion for engineering projects for the three armed services, defense sources said.
The navy will get about 50 percent of the NT$600 billion budget to buy and upgrade its weapons.
The army will receive nearly 30 percent of the budget, while the air force will get the remainder.
The air force will get the smallest proportion of the NT$600 billion budget because it has already spent more money over the past decade than the other two services by purchasing three new types of fighter planes, including the F-16A/B, the IDF and the Mirage 2000-5.
The navy will have the first priority to use the military's budget for weaponry procurement in the coming decade.
Items on the navy's shopping list will include eight diesel-powered submarines, 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft, an unidentified number of MH-53E helicopters, four Kidd-class destroyers and an unknown number of AAV7-A1 amphibious assault vehicles. The eight submarines will be the most costly investment for the navy, at about NT$210 billion.
The 12 P-3C aircraft will be the second most expensive items for the navy. They are estimated to cost nearly NT$100 billion.
The four Kidd-class destroyers, though not as costly as the submarines or P-3Cs, are considered to be of no less importance to the navy since they are expected to greatly expand the navy's area of operations.
They are estimated to cost around NT$28.4 billion.
The army also has a lot to buy, such as the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter, the Patriot PAC-III air defense system and the M109-A6 self-propelled howitzer.
These three items have been approved by the US government for sale to Taiwan.
The army has not given up its plan to buy the M1A2 main battle tank, although the US government has yet to give its approval for the sale.
The army plans to buy around 30 AH-64Ds at a cost of around NT$40 billion to arm its third airborne brigade -- the 603rd brigade.
The Patriot PAC-III air defense system is to be bought over two to three installments at a cost of over NT$100 billion.
Though the army will receive the least amount of money in the coming decade, it may become the next biggest recipient of arms build-up funds after 10 years. The military usually works out its arms build-up plans in 10-year cycles.
The army's plans for the years beyond the coming decade are to develop full-scale off-shore strike capabilities, which require longer-range weapons systems.
One of the options that the army has in mind is to establish a short-range surface-to-surface missile force armed with missiles with a range of less than 300km.
The Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology of the military is now developing a kind of missile that will meet the army's demand for the projected missile force.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS