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Use U.S. grant to upgrade Taiwan's military command systems: Experts

ROC Central News Agency

12/09/2022 11:38 PM

Taipei, Dec. 9 (CNA) Taiwan should capitalize on a proposed US$10 billion grant set out in the U.S.' 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to upgrade its automated command and control systems, a military expert said Friday.

The 2023 NDAA, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday, authorizes up to US$2 billion in annual grants from 2023 to 2027, and an additional US$2 billion in loans to Taiwan to buy weapons from the United States.

Chieh Chung (揭仲), a research fellow at the Association of Strategic Foresight, said by using the money to upgrade automated command and control systems, Taiwan would bolster its network-centric warfare (NCW) readiness.

The U.S. agreeing to provide Taiwan with military aid showed that it was concerned about the situation in the Taiwan Strait deteriorating before 2027, he said.

Taiwan's Navy should bolster its command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, and surveillance (C4ISR) capabilities, thereby facilitating data transmission between its arsenal of U.S.-made weapons systems and bolstering NCW capabilities, Chieh said.

Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌), an analyst at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that based on the 66 F-16Vs the U.S. agreed to sell Taiwan in 2020, the latter could hope to acquire weapons systems that can be mounted on F-16Vs, including AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARM) and ASQ-213 HARM targeting systems.

These weapons systems are used to detect and target any hostile radars, Shu said.

Other possible proposals Taipei could make to Washington include upgrading the nation's fleet of E-2K airborne early warning aircraft to counter China's improving electronic warfare capabilities and purchasing electronically scanned array radars and combat systems for navy flagships, as well as next-generation stealth fighters and avionics, Shu added.

Chieh, however, called into question the efficacy of the US$10 billion grant, citing delays in the delivery of weapons Washington had sold to its allies.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the 2023 NDAA next week.

(By Matt Yu and Sean Lin)

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