Defense News
09/21/2011
U.S. Releases
$5.8B Arms Package for Taiwan
By WENDELL MINNICK
A senior U.S.
Administration official stressed that the sale did not indicate any decision
had been made on Taiwan's request for 66 more advanced F-16C/D fighters.
On a call with
reporters, the U.S. official said the upgrade package was a necessary step no
matter what, characterizing the deal as an "immediate and significant
contribution to Taiwan's air defense."
The official said
that, with this sale, the Obama Administration has in less than two years
released arms worth more than $12 billion to Taiwan.
MND officials will
continue to press the U.S. to approve the export of the F-16 C/D fighters, but
they expressed gratitude for latest release; one official called it an early
Christmas gift.
The F-16A/B retrofit
"manifests U.S. commitments to abide by the Taiwan Relations Act,"
said an MND press release. The MND also said that "when the retrofit is
completed, our F-16A/B capability would be equal to 80% of those of the
F-16C/Ds" and that "some items selected in the retrofit program have
better performance than those of current U.S. Air Force F-16C/Ds."
The Obama
Administration informed Zhang Yesui, the Chinese ambassador to the United
States, of the sale the morning of Sept. 21. He registered his government's
"very firm opposition" and said there would be consequences to the
sale, but did not specify what those would be, the U.S. official said.
In January 2010, the
Chinese government suspended military-to-military relations with the United
States, following U.S. approval of a separate arms sale to Taiwan. Relations
resumed during the final quarter of 2010.
Managing
disagreements is essential to the relationship between the United States and
China, the U.S. official said.
The $5.3 billion
retrofit program will upgrade 145 F-16A/B fighters procured during the early
1990s. Included in the package is the Active Electronically Scanned Array
(AESA) radar, Embedded Global Positioning System Inertial Navigation System and
the Terma ALQ-213 Electronic Warfare Management System.
Northrop Grumman's
Scalable Agile Beam Radar and the Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar will bid for
the AESA competition to replace the A/Bs current APG-66(V)3 mechanical radar.
DSCA also released for
the first time the Boeing GBU-31 and GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions
(JDAMs). The U.S. denied past requests by Taiwan for JDAMs citing concerns the
weapon could be used against mainland Chinese targets. Taiwan's air force will
have a choice between the Lockheed AN/AAQ-33 SNIPER Targeting System and the
Northrop AN/AAQ-28 LITENING Targeting System.
Taiwan will also have
a choice between the GBU-54 Laser-guided JDAM and the GBU-10 Enhanced PAVEWAY
II or GBU-24 Enhanced PAVEWAY III. Along with PAVEWAY, the DSCA released
CBU-105 Sensor Fused Weapons and the new Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air
missile.
The F-16A/B package
will include an engineering and design study on possibly replacing the existing
F100-PW-220 engines with F100-PW-229 engines. Taiwan air force officials have
long complained the 220 engines were underpowered.
The DSCA also
released a $500 million F-16 training program at Luke Air Force Base, which is
a continuation of a program begun during the 1990s for Taiwan's 21st Tactical Fighter
Squadron based in Arizona. "The training provides a 'capstone' course that
takes experienced pilots and significantly improves their tactical
proficiency," said the DSCA press release. "Approximately 90 U.S.
contractors will provide aircraft maintenance and logistics support for the
F-16 aircraft at Luke…the prime contractor will be L-3 Communications."
MND officials said
Taiwan's budget for the new deal with take 12 years to implement. Taiwan is
struggling to pay for a 2008 and 2010 U.S. arms package worth over $13 billion.
With the new F-16A/B retrofit, the bill comes to over $18 billion, said an MND
official. The F-16A/B retrofit will be handled by the state-run Aerospace
Industrial Development Corporation, which built the IDF. ■
Kate Brannen contributed
to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment