U.S. Considering $500 Million Emergency Arms Package for Taiwan, Says Country’s Defense Minister

The Biden administration is in talks with Taiwan’s government about providing a $500 million emergency arms transfer, the island democracy’s defense minister said today.

The package is being put together to “compensate for defense loopholes created by delays in the delivery of weapons that Taiwan has procured,” defense minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan today, in comments reported by the Taipei Times. That overall delivery backlog, which partly includes orders going back as far as 2015, is worth over $19 billion.

This prospective weapons transfer would take place through presidential drawdown authority — an emergency rapid-arms delivery process — rather than through normal arms-purchase channels, Chiu said. His comments confirm reporting from Bloomberg and Reuters on Friday, revealing that such a package was in the works. Washington has used presidential drawdown to supply Ukraine with arms throughout the Russian invasion, sending 37 different tranches of weapons worth billions of dollars. This allows Washington to send weapons currently in its own stockpiles. The defense policy bill passed by Congress last year included the Enhancing Taiwan Resiliency Act, which authorized the use of presidential drawdown authority for Taiwan.

Chiu explained that the package would include “weapons that have been procured by Taiwan but have yet to be delivered. The U.S. government could then start delivering some of the weapons that they have at the moment or alternatives to meet the demands of Taiwan.”

Some of the delayed weapons include Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Javelin anti-tank weapons, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARs), and Howitzers.

While the composition of the expected drawdown package is currently unknown, $500 million can buy 3,000 Javelins, 6,000 Stingers, 500 Harpoons, or 120 Patriot missiles, Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told Taiwan’s CNA news agency. Su added that he believes the package will ultimately comprise missiles. However, Chiu specified during his comments to the Legislative Yuan that the package would not include Patriot missiles, which are not part of the current backlog.

The White House National-Security Council did not respond to National Review‘s request for comment about Chiu’s remarks this morning.

The potential drawdown acknowledged by Chiu would be the first use of the authority to arm Taiwan amid increasingly aggressive Chinese military posturing, including the recent flight of a People’s Liberation Army drone around the island for the first time.

Last month, the top U.S. commander in the Indo-Pacific issued a stark warning about America’s ability to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

“I believe that the trends for the threat are in a wrong direction. There’s no doubt about that,” said Admiral John Aquilino, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. But, he added, “the United States military is ready today for any contingency.”

The Taiwan arms backlog has followed production problems afflicting the U.S. defense-industrial base, some of which resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic while others preceded it. With U.S. arms stockpiles dwindling as Washington arms Ukraine, the Pentagon and defense-industry players are rushing to boost production.