Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Taiwan shopping for arms in US
By David Isenberg
Aug 21, 2007, Asia Times Online
WASHINGTON - The latest wrinkle in the long-running tale of US arms sales to Taiwan occurred last week when seven Taiwanese lawmakers from four different parties arrived in the United States on an 11-day visit to conduct a feasibility study for a submarine-procurement deal.
According to lawmaker Liao Wan-ju of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), the purpose of the visit, which began last Tuesday, is to learn about the production capacity of US submarine manufacturers and Washington's attitude toward the deal.
Other members of the group are KMT legislators Shuai Hua-ming and Su Chi, Fu Kun-chi of the opposition People First Party, Ho Ming-hao of the opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union, and Chang Hua-kuan and Shen Fa-hui of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
Because of media criticism and partisan disputes in Taiwan over the trip, Vice Defense Minister Ko Cheng-heng canceled a plan to join the group, and the duration and itinerary of the journey were both curtailed. According to an original itinerary revealed by Taiwan's United Daily News in mid-July, the trip will take the lawmakers to the cities of Washington, Boston and Los Angeles and the state of Hawaii, and will include visits to defense contractors General Electric, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin.
And, in response to media criticism that the trip is a waste of taxpayers' money, the sources said the legislators will have to foot part of their travel expenses out of their own pockets.
The dispute stems from an accusation by Legislator Lin Yu-fang, who claimed that the Defense Ministry was trying to "buy" lawmakers' support for its plan to acquire eight US-built submarines by offering them free trips to the United States. Lin claimed that many of the lawmakers in the delegation do not even sit on the legislature's Committee for Defense Affairs, and that the organizers altered the itinerary to accommodate some lawmakers' requests for private trips during the visit.
The Ministry of National Defense has wanted the submarines since 2004, but a budget bill for the deal has been bogged down in the opposition-controlled legislature ever since.
This visit occurs about a week after the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Taiwan of 60 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II missiles as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as US$125 million. The missile suffers from a subsonic speed and is prone to interception. But it can be launched from the air, from the sea, or from under the sea, and can hit land as well as sea targets. Taiwan has previously purchased both air- and surface-launched Harpoon missiles. The Harpoon Block IIs proposed for Taiwan are air-to-surface missiles launched from F-16 fighters.
By their range alone, the missiles could reach mainland Chinese coasts. But the fighters would have to take off successfully and reach the middle of Taiwan Strait before the missiles could be launched.
It is likely that the US Congress will approve the proposed sales, as they are relatively small compared with past sales to Taiwan. The proposed deal seems to follow a pattern in which the US would sell any weapon system that Taiwan is capable of developing by itself or procuring from a third party. The Harpoon Block II is the US equivalent to Taiwan's Hsiung Feng IIE. Hsiung Feng IIE missiles developed by Taiwan can only be launched from the island's IDF fighters, whereas its 100 F-16A/B fighters can only carry Taiwan's older Harpoon missiles.
But Taiwan may not consider the 60 Harpoon Block II missiles to be reason enough for them to give up its own project.
Ironically, the trip takes place a month after the Legislative Yuan broke a four-year deadlock over the purchase of a package of advanced US weapons. That package included 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine-warfare aircraft, eight diesel-electric submarines, six Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile-defense batteries, as well as upgrades to older Patriot batteries already in Taiwan's possession. However, the Yuan only approved funds for the Orion aircraft and the Patriot upgrades. The sale will cost Taiwan NT$31.9 billion (US$970 million), far less than the approximately US$18.5 billion value of the total package.
In a further complication, according to a commentary by an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, the US State Department is actively blocking the sale from going through to warn President Chen Shui-bian against holding a referendum on Taiwan's entry into the United Nations, one of Washington's leading commentators on Taiwanese affairs said.
Writing in the latest issue of Defense News, the analyst, John Tkacik, said the State Department had told the Pentagon that it opposed the sale of P-3C Orion submarine-hunter aircraft and advanced PAC-2 anti-ballistic-missile batteries, which the Legislative Yuan agreed to fund in June.
David Isenberg is a senior research analyst at the British American Security Information Council, a member of the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, and an adviser to the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information, Washington. These views are his own. ¶ 5:25 AM
Aug 21, 2007, Asia Times Online
WASHINGTON - The latest wrinkle in the long-running tale of US arms sales to Taiwan occurred last week when seven Taiwanese lawmakers from four different parties arrived in the United States on an 11-day visit to conduct a feasibility study for a submarine-procurement deal.
According to lawmaker Liao Wan-ju of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), the purpose of the visit, which began last Tuesday, is to learn about the production capacity of US submarine manufacturers and Washington's attitude toward the deal.
Other members of the group are KMT legislators Shuai Hua-ming and Su Chi, Fu Kun-chi of the opposition People First Party, Ho Ming-hao of the opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union, and Chang Hua-kuan and Shen Fa-hui of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
Because of media criticism and partisan disputes in Taiwan over the trip, Vice Defense Minister Ko Cheng-heng canceled a plan to join the group, and the duration and itinerary of the journey were both curtailed. According to an original itinerary revealed by Taiwan's United Daily News in mid-July, the trip will take the lawmakers to the cities of Washington, Boston and Los Angeles and the state of Hawaii, and will include visits to defense contractors General Electric, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin.
And, in response to media criticism that the trip is a waste of taxpayers' money, the sources said the legislators will have to foot part of their travel expenses out of their own pockets.
The dispute stems from an accusation by Legislator Lin Yu-fang, who claimed that the Defense Ministry was trying to "buy" lawmakers' support for its plan to acquire eight US-built submarines by offering them free trips to the United States. Lin claimed that many of the lawmakers in the delegation do not even sit on the legislature's Committee for Defense Affairs, and that the organizers altered the itinerary to accommodate some lawmakers' requests for private trips during the visit.
The Ministry of National Defense has wanted the submarines since 2004, but a budget bill for the deal has been bogged down in the opposition-controlled legislature ever since.
This visit occurs about a week after the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Taiwan of 60 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II missiles as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as US$125 million. The missile suffers from a subsonic speed and is prone to interception. But it can be launched from the air, from the sea, or from under the sea, and can hit land as well as sea targets. Taiwan has previously purchased both air- and surface-launched Harpoon missiles. The Harpoon Block IIs proposed for Taiwan are air-to-surface missiles launched from F-16 fighters.
By their range alone, the missiles could reach mainland Chinese coasts. But the fighters would have to take off successfully and reach the middle of Taiwan Strait before the missiles could be launched.
It is likely that the US Congress will approve the proposed sales, as they are relatively small compared with past sales to Taiwan. The proposed deal seems to follow a pattern in which the US would sell any weapon system that Taiwan is capable of developing by itself or procuring from a third party. The Harpoon Block II is the US equivalent to Taiwan's Hsiung Feng IIE. Hsiung Feng IIE missiles developed by Taiwan can only be launched from the island's IDF fighters, whereas its 100 F-16A/B fighters can only carry Taiwan's older Harpoon missiles.
But Taiwan may not consider the 60 Harpoon Block II missiles to be reason enough for them to give up its own project.
Ironically, the trip takes place a month after the Legislative Yuan broke a four-year deadlock over the purchase of a package of advanced US weapons. That package included 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine-warfare aircraft, eight diesel-electric submarines, six Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile-defense batteries, as well as upgrades to older Patriot batteries already in Taiwan's possession. However, the Yuan only approved funds for the Orion aircraft and the Patriot upgrades. The sale will cost Taiwan NT$31.9 billion (US$970 million), far less than the approximately US$18.5 billion value of the total package.
In a further complication, according to a commentary by an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, the US State Department is actively blocking the sale from going through to warn President Chen Shui-bian against holding a referendum on Taiwan's entry into the United Nations, one of Washington's leading commentators on Taiwanese affairs said.
Writing in the latest issue of Defense News, the analyst, John Tkacik, said the State Department had told the Pentagon that it opposed the sale of P-3C Orion submarine-hunter aircraft and advanced PAC-2 anti-ballistic-missile batteries, which the Legislative Yuan agreed to fund in June.
David Isenberg is a senior research analyst at the British American Security Information Council, a member of the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, and an adviser to the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information, Washington. These views are his own. ¶ 5:25 AM
