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Lawmaker concerned over quality of U.S. arms sold to Taiwan

ROC Central News Agency

2014/01/06 16:40:16

Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) A lawmaker expressed concern Monday over the quality of U.S.-made military aircraft sold to Taiwan, following faults recently found in an AH-64E Apache attack helicopter and P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft.

During a legislative committee hearing, lawmaker Chiu Yi-ying of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party raised questions about the quality of the helicopters and P-3Cs and asked Taiwan's representative to the U.S., King Pu-tsung, to look into the issue.

In response, King promised to convey the concerns to the U.S., and said that Taiwan and the U.S. will continue communicating on the matter.

Chiu's remarks came after the Air Force confirmed last week that one of the 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft purchased from the U.S. was behind schedule due to a malfunction in its flight control system.

Meanwhile, the first batch of six AH-64E Apache helicopters, delivered to Taiwan in November, have been grounded for safety checks since Dec. 17 after Taiwan was notified of a malfunction in a helicopter of the same model used by the U.S. Army.

However, no problems have been found in the six helicopters bought by Taiwan, a military source said. For safety concerns, the helicopters have been grounded pending a full investigation by the U.S. into the cause of the malfunction.

Taiwan has not received any further information from the U.S. on the cause of the problem, an Army Aviation Special Forces official said.

A second batch of Apache helicopters arrived in Taiwan last week and will be sent to an Army Aviation Special Forces base in Tainan for assembly, the official said.

The aircraft are part of a 30-helicopter package purchased by Taiwan at a cost of more than US$2 billion. The model E is the latest in the Apache attack helicopter series.

Deliveries of the third, fourth and fifth batches of Apache helicopters are scheduled for March, May and July, the source said.

The U.S. and Taiwan are the only two countries that use the latest model of Apache helicopters.

(By Elaine Hou)
ENDITEM/J