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Taiwan to defer arms acquisition from U.S.

ROC Central News Agency

2010/10/27 22:55:56

By Emmanuelle Tzeng and Deborah Kuo

Taipei, Oct. 27 (CNA) Taiwan will defer the acquisition of some weapons systems from the United States due to the government's financial constraints, Legislator Lin Yu-fang of the ruling Kuomintang quoted the Ministry of National Defense (MND) as saying Wednesday.

The MND has preliminarily determined to talk to the U.S. about postponing the production schedule of the six Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) anti-missile batteries from 2014 to 2017 and of 60 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters from 2016 to 2019, according to a statement issued by Lin.

The deferral is necessary due to production schedules at the U.S. end, as well as out of consideration of the Taiwan government's financial constraints combined with the fact that it is unlikely the annual defense budget will be raised significantly in the near future, Lin added.

Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu said at a legislative committee meeting that Taiwan is now entering the peak period for making payments for military investment. He added that, if it was acceptable to the legislature, the MND wanted to redistribute to other uses those sums budgeted for the U.S. weapons systems that Taiwan cannot acquire according to the original schedule.

Lin said that according to the MND's plans, the defense accumulated budget stands at NT$330.7 billion (US$10.7 billion) for the period 2011 to 2014, or NT$82.7 billion per year.

Procurement of the U.S. arms systems would take about 61 percent of the budget, or NT$50.3 billion a year, he noted. This would affect the budget for purchasing domestically developed weapons and related facilities over the same period, he continued.

"Cut the budget for those items we are not getting in the following several years, such as the F-16C/D fighters and submarines," he suggested.

The US$6.4 billion package of arms that Washington announced in late January that it wants to sell to Taiwan includes 60 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, two Osprey Class mine-hunting ships, 12 ATM-84L and RTM-84L Harpoon Block II Telemetry missiles, 114 PAC-3 missiles and communications equipment.