The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) recently said 22 weapon systems approved for transfer to Taiwan are not due to be delivered until 2025 or 2029, following his own recent trip there.
“After seeing Taiwan’s defense capabilities firsthand, I can say that they’re not where they need to be. Weapons sales I signed off on four years ago, and the ranking member, have yet to make it to Taiwan. [Taiwanese] President Tsai [Ing-wen] asked me where are my weapons? I paid for them,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said during a May 24 HFAC hearing.
McCaul argued Russia’s invasion of Ukraine proved weapons are needed before and not after a conflict erupts.
McCaul and other Republicans focused on a list of 22 weapons approved for Taiwan between July 2019 and March 2023, including Raytheon Technologies [RTX] Stinger missiles, Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-16 Block 70 fighter jets, Lockheed’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), the General Atomics MQ-9B Sky Guardian UAS; Boeing [BA] Harpoon Block II missile and the Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles.
McCaul said he and the HFAC ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) signed off on 22 weapon systems “and as I look at the list, the earliest that any can be delivered is by 2025. And some as late as 2029. …Why is this taking so long?”
Jessica Lewis, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, said she agreed on the urgency to make sure Taiwan is prepared to help deter any mainland Chinese invasion.
“So I don’t have the exact list, but I’m fairly sure I’m correct that we are now at the point where we are looking at the production timeline for those weapons to be built,” Lewis said.
She noted arms sales proceed via clearing the sale, having a system go on contract, and then once on contract production starts. Lewis noted Taiwan has paid for these systems already, so production is the major remaining step.
“We agree that the defense industrial base needs to work together with us and the Department of Defense to speed up industrial production. This is a worldwide problem, not just Taiwan specific. And the Department of Defense has taken urgent steps…on this issue,’ Lewis continued.
She argued the State Department had sent billions of dollars in military equipment to be authorized by Congress since 2017 and over the last year the Biden administration signed off on more arms sales to Taiwan than in the last decade combined.
“Now we need to work on them getting produced and getting to Taiwan quickly,” she said.
McCaul asked if its possible to redirect some weapons sales from another country to Taiwan or allow third party sales of U.S. weapons from another country to Taiwan.
Lewis said they should look at all available options and noted in third party transfers one country would have to agree to transfer the weapons to Taiwan.
“But I think you’re right to ask us to take a look at all of those,” she said.