Delays in US delivery of promised weapons to Taiwan stem more from defense industry shortcomings than government inefficiency, a US Department of State official handling foreign arms sales said.
“We need to work together to encourage our partners in industry to take more risks, be more flexible, diversify their supply chains and act with deliberate speed to expand production capacity,” Mira Resnick, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Political Military Affairs, said in prepared remarks for a hearing yesterday by the US House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services.
US lawmakers have criticized a potential backlog of as much as US$19 billion in military contract deliveries for Taiwan, a sensitive matter as concerns grow over the possibility that China might eventually pursue its claim to Taiwan by force.
Photo: AP / Military News Agency
It was an issue likely to be pursued at the hearing by committee Chairman Mike Rogers and US Representative Michael Gallagher, chairman of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the US and the Chinese Communist Party.
When it takes more than five years for Taiwan to receive a Patriot missile system or an F-16 jet, “the key problem is certainly not” the state department’s review process for foreign military sales or the time for notification to Congress, Resnick said.
Instead, “the root cause of delays is insufficient industrial capacity and long production timelines. So industry must also step up and play a key role in these efforts,” she said.
Resnik also offered a sobering assessment of the economic consequences if shipping lanes in the Taiwan Strait were ever disrupted: She said that would threaten more than 180,000 US jobs.
The first two new F-16s — out of 66 for Taiwan in a potential US$8 billion package — were supposed to be delivered by Lockheed Martin Corp between next month and December, but that has slipped to between July and September next year, Taiwanese officials said in May.
The US attributed the delay to coronavirus-affected supply chain issues, but the jets also have been dogged by software problems, they added.
On the Patriot system, Resnick was referring to the US proposal in December last year to sell Taiwan as many as 100 units of its most advanced air-defense system, also made by Lockheed, along with radar and support equipment in a deal valued at US$882 million. The proposal, made under the provisions of a 2010 sale to Taiwan, was not new, but was called an enhancement to an earlier deal.
In a separate statement to the House panel, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner said that in addition to proposed arms sales, the Pentagon is working closely with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense and its All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency on several initiatives.
“We are supporting the integration of Taiwan’s military and civilian agencies on a range of issues from stockpiling of food, medical supplies and energy to hardening key infrastructure nodes,” he said.
In related news, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that China (MND) flew 55 aircraft and sailed seven naval vessels around Taiwan in a 24-hour window from Monday to yesterday morning, as it called on Beijing to stop its “provocative actions.”
The latest sorties came a day after China flew 103 warplanes in the 24-hour window from Sunday to Monday morning around Taiwan, which the authorities said was a “recent high” number.
China’s “provocative actions” have led to “rising tensions and deteriorating regional security,” the ministry said.
About half of the 55 warplanes detected crossed the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait, and entered Taiwan’s southwest and southeast air defense identification zone, Taipei said.
On Monday, Taiwan had urged China to “immediately stop such destructive unilateral actions.”
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment on the sorties on Monday, although its spokeswoman, Mao Ning (毛寧), reaffirmed Beijing’s position that Taiwan belongs to China and reiterated Beijing’s policy that “the so-called median line does not exist.”
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