Taiwan’s Perry-class corvettes practice launching anti-submarine missiles.

On December 16, the US government notified the National Assembly of its plan to sell a weapons package worth 1.83 billion USD to Taiwan, in the context of increasingly tense US-China relations due to recent tensions.

This statement was made by the White House one year after the US Congress passed a law allowing the sale of these weapons to Taiwan.

Accordingly, the US will sell Taiwan two Perry-class corvettes under the Defense Supplemental Clause.

The Perry-class corvette is a small, low-cost warship designed and built by the United States since the 1970s to protect amphibious ships or participate in aircraft carrier battle groups.

After more than 40 years of service in the US Navy, the Perry-class corvette fleet is being retired to make way for the more modern Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyers.

Before being resold to countries and territories, these corvettes will be repaired, refurbished and equipped with appropriate weapon systems by US defense companies to extend their service time.

In addition, the US State Department also approved providing Taiwan with Javelin anti-tank missiles, TOW 2B anti-tank missiles and AAV-7 amphibious assault ships.

`This weapons package will help Taiwan strengthen its defense capabilities in a creative and asymmetric way,` said David McKeeby, spokesman for the Political-Military Bureau of the US State Department.

Mr. McKeeby emphasized that this arms package will not change the US `one China` policy.

Purely defensive weapons

According to analysts, this $1.83 billion contract is quite modest in scale and firepower compared to the $5.9 billion weapons package that the US sold to Taiwan four years ago.

Javelin anti-tank missile, a defense weapon the US agreed to sell to Taiwan.

Military analysts point out that among the weapons that the US agreed to sell to Taiwan this time, there is absolutely no type that can support the diesel-electric submarine program that Taiwan is implementing to replace Taiwan.

`The weapons on this list are purely for defensive purposes,` Mr. Eric Wertheim, a US naval analyst, told USNI News on December 16.

During the past four years, the US government has not sold any weapons to Taiwan, despite criticism from Congress.

Last month, Senator John McCain wrote a letter to the White House expressing concern that the US was not proactive in supporting Taiwan in the context of China’s rapid military development.

`Without this support, Taiwan’s military will continue to lack resources and be unable to maintain a credible deterrent against the threat from (mainland) China, especially when national resources are limited.