TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Around 25 U.S. defense contractor representatives are planning a trip to Taiwan to discuss joint production of drones and ammunition, Nikkei reported on Tuesday (April 11).
U.S.-Taiwan Business Council President Rupert Hammond-Chambers told Nikkei that the trip is expected in early May. The delegation will be headed by Steven Rudder, retired commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, and it would mark the first defense industry visit to Taiwan since 2019, the report said.
The delegation is expected to hold talks with people from Taiwan’s defense industry and may also meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Hammond-Chambers told the outlet the goal of the trip is “to promote defense industry cooperation with Taiwan.”
Hammond-Chambers said Taiwan is interested in airborne, surface, and underwater drones, in addition to ammunition. The American delegation, which will contain several U.S. defense contractors with drone expertise, will look for areas to provide advanced technology and jointly develop drones with Taiwanese companies, the report noted.
American companies usually need government approval to jointly manufacture weapons with overseas partners. “From a very high-level perspective, we think that co-production arrangements make sense, but we need to take a look at them on a case-by-case basis, and it has to be at the request of U.S. industry,” a senior Biden administration official told Nikkei.
With U.S. defense contractors struggling to meet demand in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Washington is open to the idea of contractors working with Taiwan, Nikkei said.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is also urging some European allies to supply arms to Taiwan, the report said. “It is a widespread opinion of the Biden administration that Taiwan should be able to procure from a variety of different sources,” Nikkei cited the Biden administration official as saying.
“We understand areas where it might make sense for some of our allies and partners who manufacture certain capabilities, for those capabilities to be made available to Taiwan,” the official told Nikkei. “In those cases, we definitely are reaching out to those partners,” the official added.
In order to export arms developed with a foreign partner to a third country, American companies need approval from that partner’s government, according to Nikkei.
News of the defense contractors’ trip comes after China recently carried out large-scale military exercises directed at Taiwan between April 8-10, in response to President Tsai’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week. The People’s Liberation Army sent 232 military aircraft and 32 naval vessels around Taiwan over three days.
