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AIR FORCE CLARIFIES REPORT ON AIM-120 MISSILE PROCUREMENT

Aug 09, 2002 18:23 UTC+0800

Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) The Air Force General Headquarters (AFGH) denied Friday a newspaper report that the United States is to speed up delivery to Taiwan of 200 advanced AIM-120 air-to-air missiles amid heightened tension across the Taiwan Strait.

"The report is not true," the AFGH said in a press release. "The procurement of AIM-120 missiles is proceeding smoothly and in accordance with the original schedule," it added.

The United States has agreed to sell the missiles to Taiwan on the condition that they be stored in the United States and only delivered when mainland China acquires a weapons system of similar capability, such as the Russian-made AA-12. The United States imposed the restriction mainly to avoid criticism that it was triggering an arms race in the Taiwan Strait region by transferring the sophisticated missiles. Both the AA-12 and the AIM-120 fall into the category of active radar-homing and fire-and-forget missiles.

Since President Chen Shui-bian delivered his Aug. 3 speech in which he described Taiwan and mainland China as two separate countries, Beijing has fired fierce broadsides against Chen and his administration, prompting a local evening paper to speculate that the air force would push the United States to accelerate delivery of the AIM-120 missiles to cope with the new developments in cross-strait relations.

(By Sofia Wu)