US arms sale to lift long-range striking capability: analysts (Taiwan) [View all]
Taipei Times October 24
Staff writer, with CNA
A proposed arms package sale approved by the US Department of State on Wednesday would help Taiwan improve its long-range counterstrike capability in the event of an attack, security analysts said on Thursday.
If approved by the US Congress, the package which has 135 AGM-84H SLAM-ER, 11 HIMARS M142 launchers and six MS-110 Recce Pods would also represent a milestone in US-Taiwan military cooperation, the analysts said.
To date, the US has only sold passive defense systems to Taiwan, but this time, the package includes air-to-ground long-range weapons, said Su Tzu-yun ( 蘇紫雲 ), an associate research fellow at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
Previously, such weapons could not be sold to Taiwan as they defined as defensive arms, he said, citing as an example the SLAM-ER, or standoff land-
attack missile expanded-response, which is a precision-guided air-launched cruise missile with an operational range of 270km.
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