Taiwan To Buy 400 US Anti-Ship Missiles, Announced As China Conducts "Major" Military Drills
The Harpoon system is a mobile, land-launched missile system.
Taiwan plans to buy up to 400 Harpoon land-launched missiles
repel a future Chinese invasion
Rupert Hammond Chambers, president of the US Taiwan Business Council, told Bloomberg.
Taiwan has previously purchased Harpoons for use on warships. This marks the first time that Harpoons are being used in this manner.
first time
Purchase
The mobile version is a land-launched vehicle
.
Via Naval News - Land-based Harpoon launched from a trailer.
Bloomberg reports that "the Pentagon announced the new
Contract worth $1.7 billion
The US and China are currently experiencing tense relations as a result of the increasing military exercises by China around Taiwan.
The Monday Report
Reviews
:
Members of Congress, including Michael McCaul (chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee), have cited the Harpoon contract as part of $19 billion worth of 'backlogged US exports to Taiwan, which they claim need to be accelerated. The list also includes the F-16 Block 70, MK-48 Torpedo, M109A6 Paladin Self-Propelled Howitzer, and Stinger missile.
The US-Taiwan Business Council also confirmed that the Harpoon will be transferred.
China's military has announced that it is conducting a drill on the same date.
"Major military activity"
Yellow Sea, waters near the coast of Shandong Province.
These drills, while only planned for a few short hours, follow a series major days-long encircling exercises threatening Taiwan. They have been ongoing since Taiwan's president Tsai-Ing-wen, who met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in California's Simi Valley. Beijing had warned against such a meeting.