Taiwan’s centerpiece of an air defense system, the AN/FPS-115 PAVE PAWS long-range radar in Hsinchu County’s Leshan (樂山), is expected to cost NT$2.39 billion (US$75.01 million) to maintain next year, the Ministry of National Defense’s budget for the next fiscal year showed.
The ultra-high-frequency radar deployed as a fixed installation has a reported maximum range of greater than 5,500km, enough to probe into China’s hinterland, Indochina and the South China Sea, sources said.
The system was operationally activated in February 2013.
Photo: Taipei Times file
The ministry allocated NT$5 million to install an identification system and NT$147 million to maintain the PAVE PAWS’ auxiliary systems in addition to the maintenance of the radar itself, the budget showed.
The radar maintenance budget is only this year’s portion of a much larger continuing technical support program linked to the system that would run over the next four years, it said.
When asked about the costs of the radar, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said on condition of anonymity that the PAVE PAWS system provides Taiwan with sophisticated and highly classified US technology.
US technicians perform the maintenance of proprietary technologies to ensure the system can operate effectively without compromising secrecy, they said, adding that a team of US engineers is stationed in Taiwan for this purpose.
Despite the high maintenance cost associated with it, operating the PAVE PAWS system is necessary for the nation to have the important capability of tracking Chinese missiles, they said.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s recent military exercises, including those that involved firing missiles into Taiwan’s eastern seas, were monitored by the PAVE PAWS system, the official said.
The continuing technical support of the long-range radar is arranged with the US for five-year periods, with the first period starting in 2012, the second in 2017 and the third in last year.
The current technical support increment would cost the nation NT$16.6 billion.
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