TSAMTO, October 8. Taiwan plans to allocate an additional $9 billion as a special allowance to finance defense projects over the next five years.
The main priorities are the purchase of long-range and anti-ship missile weapons in connection with the tense situation in relations with China.
According to Defense News, this increase for the upcoming five-year period is calculated on the basis of the budget for 2022, which is determined in the amount of 16.89 billion US dollars for 2022 (January 1 - December 31, 2022).
As noted, Taiwan's parliament is likely to approve the surcharge, since the ruling pro-presidential Democratic Progressive Party has a majority in the legislative assembly.
Taiwan's Deputy Defense Minister Wang Shin-lung said that most of the additional funds will go to the purchase of weapons from national companies, but noted that part of the additional funding will be directed to the purchase of spare parts and technological support from the United States.
Taiwan's Defense ministry said the domestically developed systems include cruise missiles and warships. Wang Shin-lung highlighted the Antelope air defense system, the wAng Chien long-range cruise missile and the Xiong Feng IIE anti-ship missile.
He also added that part of the additional budget will go to the shipbuilding industry development program, which provides for the construction of URO corvettes, amphibious assault ships and diesel-electric submarines for the Taiwan Navy.
At the moment, it is unclear whether additional funding will be used to purchase Lockheed Martin's MH-60R "Seahawk" anti-submarine helicopters (Taiwan's Defense Ministry tried to include allocations for this program in the defense budget for 2022 at the "last minute").
