TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — To address the backlog of American weapons deliveries to Taiwan, a U.S. House delegation on Thursday (Feb. 22) called on allocating long-term budgets for annual shipments of key material and coproducing arms in Taiwan.
Representative Mike Gallagher, head of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, arrived with a seven-member delegation on Thursday for a three-day tour. The delegation also includes ranking members Raja Krishnamoorthi, John Moolnaar, Dusty Johnson, and Seth Moulton.
The delegation met with President-elect Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Thursday morning. Before attending a banquet hosted by Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the group gave a brief press conference at noon, reported Liberty Times.
In response to a question from the media about the backlog in the delivery of U.S. arms to Taiwan, Krishnamoorthi pointed out that President Biden has made efforts to expedite arms shipments. Given the pressures faced by the U.S. defense industry, Krishnamoorthi said that among its Ten for Taiwan recommendations, the committee calls for "multi-year appropriations."
Krishnamoorthi said this is the "biggest no-brainer ever," and yet it's not being implemented in Washington. He said that such a policy would show companies, such as ammunition manufacturers, that there will be a consistent demand for their products for several years, as opposed to just one-year orders.
In addition, Krishnamoorthi said that the U.S. and Taiwan should start to discuss what kinds of weapons can be co-produced in Taiwan. He suggested that there are weapons systems that do not involve the transfer of a great deal of intellectual property but require dedicated industrial capacity.
Krishnamoorthi listed 155 mm artillery, which is currently in "incredibly short supply around the world," particularly in Ukraine. The representative argued that Taiwan could be a "great partner" in the manufacture of 155 mm artillery.
He said that there are numerous "attritable items" needed for deterrence, which he suggested Taiwan could produce locally to avoid stressing the U.S. military-industrial supply chain in other parts of the globe.
Gallagher explained that the difficulties in delivery arise from the jurisdictional divisions within various departments such as the State Department and the Department of Defense. He stressed that the solution is to provide "multi-year appropriations for critical munitions," which would enable defense contractors to ramp up from minimal to maximal rates of production.
Gallagher said that one creative option he has encouraged the White House to pursue is to reconfigure about 200 Harpoon anti-ship missiles in U.S. inventories that are bound for long-term storage and enable them to be delivered to Taiwan in an expedited manner. He also called for moving Taiwan to "the front of the line" for the shipment of Harpoon missiles, which will require diplomatic maneuvers with U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, but "I think that's absolutely doable going forward."
