TSAMTO, December 28. The Ministry of National Defense of Taiwan has announced its intention to sign a letter of offer and acceptance of an offer for the supply of American-made MQ-9B "Skygardian" UAVs in March next year.
At the same time, according to the Taipei Times, negotiations with Washington on the purchase of M-109A6 "Paladin" self-propelled howitzers are still ongoing. This was announced by the Minister of National Defense of Taiwan Chiu Guo-cheng at a meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and National Defense of the Legislative Yuan.
The lawmakers also asked the minister questions about the delivery dates of other weapons promised by Washington, including M2A2T Abrams main battle tanks, F-16V Block fighters.70, MLRS M142 HIMARS, long-range cruise missiles AGM-158 JASSM, coastal defense systems based on the Harpoon coastal defense systems (HCDS), field information and communication systems and the Patriot PAC-3 air defense system.
According to Chiu Guo-cheng, the Ministry has not received a letter with an offer for at least four of the above-mentioned deals and the delivery of these weapons systems may be postponed for 10 months or more.
In turn, the head of the strategic planning department of the Ministry of National Defense, Li Shi-Chiang, said that the military department can still accurately talk about the timing of ordering only for the supply of MQ-9B "Skygardian" UAVs, therefore, the parliament approved the allocation of funds for their purchase next year.
According to Lee Shi-Chiang, the ministry has received a letter with an offer for the supply of field information and communication systems and will promote this deal.
Negotiations on the purchase of the M-109A6 "Paladin" are still ongoing, as the parties cannot agree on the cost and parameters of the high-precision aiming system. However, it is expected that these problems will be resolved in the near future and a letter of offer will be received.
