Taiwan’s Patriot missiles are getting a maintenance package of NT$2.52 billion (US$84.1 million) over four-and-a-half years from the US, a notification about the deal issued by the Ministry of National Defense showed on Thursday.
The US Department of State in February approved the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s request to offer a maintenance package for Taiwanese Patriot PAC-2/GEM and Patriot PAC-3 missile defense systems, said a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
US-made Patriot missile defense systems are designed to shoot down hostile aircraft and ballistic missiles, capabilities that experts said Taiwan urgently needs amid China’s frequent incursions into its air defense identification zone and live-fire missile tests last week.
Photo courtesy of the Military News Agency
The package includes support through the US Army International Engineering Services Program and the Field Surveillance Program, the official told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times).
The programs would ensure that the missiles systems are reliable, adequately supplied with parts and upgraded, they said.
These services were originally listed at US$100 million, with a program duration of five years, but the price was reduced following negotiations between Taipei and Washington, they said.
The contract was signed by a ministry-led delegation of military officers and American Institute in Taiwan officials, and took effect on July 20, they said.
Taiwan operates PAC-3s and PAC-2/GEMs — which are PAC-2s upgraded to PAC-3 performance standards. Improved PAC-3/MSEs are expected to be delivered in 2025 and 2026.
Separately, the nation’s defense budget is slated to grow 4.2 percent next year, more than the 4.09 percent the Cabinet previously said it was considering, an official familiar with the matter said.
Next year’s defense budget would be NT$15.4 billion higher than this year’s budget of NT$367.6 billion, they said, adding that the largest budget items would be personnel costs, operational costs and arms procurement.
The salaries and benefits of military service members are important issues to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), which is reflected in the budget plan prepared under the supervision of Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), they said.
Asked what weapons Taiwan is planning to obtain next year, the official declined to comment, citing national security implications.
Social welfare programs would remain the largest item in the government’s overall budget next year, at nearly one-quarter of the NT$2.7 trillion plan, they said.
One of the most significant changes in social welfare spending is a child-rearing subsidy increase to NT$5,000 per month, from NT$3,500 per month this year, and higher subsidies for fertility treatments, they said.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
There is no need for one country to control the semiconductor industry, which is complex and needs a division of labor, Taiwan’s top technology official said yesterday after US President Donald Trump criticized the nation’s chip dominance. Trump repeated claims on Thursday that Taiwan had taken the industry and he wanted it back in the US, saying he aimed to restore US chip manufacturing. National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) did not name Trump in a Facebook post, but referred to President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments on Friday that Taiwan would be a reliable partner in the
RSS