The Ministry of National Defense plans to buy US-made M67 grenades worth NT$1.03 billion (US$32.3 million) over the next years as the military expands and tensions with China increase, the ministry’s budget showed.
The hand grenade program is to be allocated NT$51.8 million for the next fiscal year, according to the ministry’s budget proposal that was delivered to the Legislative Yuan on Thursday.
According to the US Department of Defense, the average cost of one M67 hand grenade was US$45 in 2021, meaning the ministry’s budget can afford about 730,000 grenades.
Photo courtesy of Military News Agency
The M67 grenades would supplement older Mk 2 grenades that were manufactured under license by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the budget showed.
The M67 is a design originating in the Vietnam War that features a more powerful explosive filler, a more reliable fuse and a smooth metal casing that produces deadlier fragments than previous designs.
Meanwhile, based on details of the ministry’s annual budget proposal for the next year, Taiwan is to receive seven of 14 anti-tank munition-laying systems that it had ordered from the US by the end of this year.
Photo: Screen grab from the US Army Reserve Web site
The remaining seven systems would arrive in 2026, it added.
The total budget for the M136 Volcano Vehicle-Launched Scatterable Mine System is about NT$4.89 billion, which is to be allocated through 2029, according to the ministry.
The budget would be slightly more than the NT$4.5 billion deal that Taiwan signed with Washington earlier this year.
The US arms package for Taiwan includes the M136 Volcano, M977A4 HEMTT 10-tonne cargo trucks on which munition-laying systems would be mounted, M87A1 Anti-Tank (AT) munitions, M88 canister training munitions (practice dummy ammunition rounds), and M89 training munitions (test ammunition rounds), according to a US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announcement made in December last year.
Procurement of the vehicle-launched automated mine dispensing systems has sparked concern from opposition parties and academics in Taiwan that they would turn the country into an “island of land mines.”
The Army Command Headquarters said on Friday that the acquisition of munition-laying systems would be crucial for deterrence and it is legal under domestic and international laws.
Mines would be used responsibly to accomplish military objectives while following humanitarian guidelines, the command said, adding that certain media outlets have acted “improperly” by using inflammatory language such as “island of land mines” to slander the military’s efforts to defend the nation.
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei
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