The NT$47 billion (US$1.69 billion) budget allotted by the air force for fiscal 2022 to 2027 is to be used to purchase assorted US missiles — ranging from the AGM-88 to the AGM-84H — for its fleet of F-16 jets, which can only carry US-made armaments, the air force said yesterday.
The funding of the “Project to Obtain Ranged Precision Armaments for the F-16 Jet” is in line with the military’s strategy of “defense first, layered deterrence” and the Ministry of National Defense’s “Joint Air Denial” program, the air force said.
The goal is to effectively paralyze targets that pose a threat to Taiwan and to reduce the enemy’s anti-air capabilities, it said.
While the air force has only budgeted NT$550 million for the program in fiscal 2022, the budget is between NT$3.3 billion and NT$21.4 billion a year from 2023 to 2027.
A source speaking on condition of anonymity said that it is highly likely the purchased missiles would be the AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM), the glide bomb AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), the AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response, the B variant of the AGM-99 and the C variant of the AGM-154.
The source said they deduced the list based on past practices in which the Ministry of National Defense formally announces proposed purchases after the Defense Security Cooperation Agency of the US Department of Defense has released details of an arms sale.
The administration of former US president Donald Trump in June 2017 sold Taiwan AGM-88 HARM and AGM-154 JSOW missiles, as well as AGM-84H missiles last year for a total of US$1.41 billion, the source said.
The ministry’s five-year armament plan also says that it intends to acquire the AGM-84H, the AGM-88B and the AGM-154C for the F-16 jet, the source said.
The ministry’s budget also sets aside NT$21 million from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2025 to acquire four General Atomics Aeronautical MQ-9B drones, which then-minister of national defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) in November last year said were for “monitoring purposes,” although the budget item is listed as “armed” drones.
The Air Force Command Headquarters’ budget proposal says that it intends to establish a fleet of drones that are capable of staying in the air for prolonged periods, have real-time data and image transmission capabilities, can operate in the day and at night, and can be armed.
The drones, if armed, could provide support during a defensive battle, the air force said.
Meanwhile, the navy has set aside NT$43.1 billion to upgrade its Kangding-class frigates’ anti-air and anti-missile capabilities, the most expansive upgrades made to the frigates in their 25 years of service.
The navy has spread the budget across nine years with the upgrades expected to be completed in 2030.
The frigates are currently armed with Hsiung Feng II anti-surface missiles and Sea Chapparal anti-air missiles.
However, the Sea Chapparal missiles have a range of only 8km and the navy wants to replace them with the domestically developed shipborne variant of the Tien Chien II (Skysword) missile system, which has a range of up to 30km.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS