Taiwan Drops Plan To Buy Costly U.S. Anti-Submarine Choppers

Taiwan signaled on Thursday that it had abandoned a plan to buy advanced new anti-submarine warfare helicopters from the United States, saying they were too expensive, Ben Blanchard and Roger Tung reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Taiwan had earlier said it was planning to buy 12 MH-60R anti-submarine helicopters, made by Lockheed Martin Corp. unit Sikorsky.

Taiwan had earlier said it was planning to buy 12 MH-60R anti-submarine helicopters, made by Lockheed Martin Corp. unit Sikorsky, but domestic media said the United States had rejected the sale as not being in line with the island's needs.

Asked in parliament about recent changes to Taiwan's purchases of new U.S. weapons, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng mentioned the helicopter case first. "The price is too high, beyond the scope of our country's ability," he said.

Two other arms purchases have also been delayed - M109A6 Medium Self-Propelled Howitzer artillery systems, and mobile Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Raytheon Technologies' Stingers are in hot demand in Ukraine, where they have been used against Russian aircraft, but US supplies have shrunk and there are significant hurdles to producing more of the anti-aircraft weapons.

Chiu said they had already signed the contract for the Stingers and paid for them, and they would press the US to deliver them. "We don't view arms sales as a trifling matter, and we have backup plans," he added, without elaborating.

Taiwan says the US has offered alternatives to the M109A6, including truck-based rocket launchers made by Lockheed Martin called the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS.

Chiu said they were still considering their options on that. Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, is undertaking a military modernization program to improve its capabilities to fend off a Chinese attack, including with precision weapons like missiles.

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