**Taiwan To Buy 400 US Anti-Ship Missiles, Announced As China Conducts "Major" Military Drills**
Taiwan To Buy 400 US Anti-Ship Missiles, Announced As China Conducts "Major" Military Drills
Taiwan is set to purchase up to 400 land-launched Harpoon missiles in order to **repel a future Chinese invasion**, according to the president of the US-Taiwan Business Council Rupert Hammond-Chambers, speaking to Bloomberg.
While Harpoons have previously been purchased by Taiwan for deployment on warships, this marks a **first time** **acquisition** **of the mobile, land-launched version**.
?itok=z92RjX-j\
_Via Naval News: Land-based Harpoon missile launched from a truck trailer._ (
?itok=z92RjX-j)
Per Bloomberg, "The Pentagon announced the **$1.7 billion contract** with Boeing on April 7 but made no mention of Taiwan as the purchaser" at a moment of tense US-China relations due to ratcheting Chinese military drills around the self-ruled island.
As the Monday report additionally reviews (https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/04/18/Taiwan-to-buy-400-US-anti-ship-missiles-intended-to-repel-a-China-invasion):
> _The Harpoon contract has been cited by members of Congress including Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as part of as much $19 billion in “backlogged US sales to Taiwan that they say need to accelerated. In addition to the Harpoon, the list includes the F-16 Block 70 fighter, the MK-48 torpedo, the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer and the Stinger missile._
Additionally the US-Taiwan Business Council has now confirmed the Harpoon is to be transferred.
Meanwhile China's military announced on the same day it is conducting **"major military activity"** in the Yellow Sea in waters off the coast of Shandong province.
While these drills were only scheduled for a few hours, they follow a series of major days-long encircling drills threatening Taiwan, which have been going off-and-on since earlier this month Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California’s Simi Valley, a meeting which Beijing warned strongly against.
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Tue, 04/18/2023 - 23:05