TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan and the U.S. finally inked a deal to inspect its Patriot III missiles at an undisclosed American military base on Wednesday (April 28), for a total of NT$16.42 billion (US$589.64 million).
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said it will inspect its Patriot III missiles after administrative errors were corrected. The Control Yuan pointed out last month the Air Force had failed to comply with project approval procedures for its Patriot III missiles.
After it received approval from the MND, it sent a request to a Taiwan military delegation in the U.S. to contact the American government for a missile test agreement. This action violated administrative procedures, and after corrections within the MND were made, the entire plan was halted, CNA reported.
The missiles will now be tested in eight batches from 2023 to 2030, with 48 items per batch over seven to eight months. It is expected the testing will be completed before September 30, 2030, according to Apple Daily.
Additionally, the MND recently confirmed that it has purchased Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) systems and expects to complete delivery between 2025 and 2026. The new missiles have a longer reach and are larger, allowing only 12 units per launch vehicle as opposed to 16 for the previous Patriot variant.