Taiwan to buy two warships from US
Taiwan plans to buy two warships from the United States as part of an effort to modernise its naval force amid a perceived military threat from Beijing, defence minister Kao Hua-chu said on Monday.
The two Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, now serving in the US navy, will be delivered to Taiwan by 2015, Kao said while answering questions in parliament.
“The defence ministry has decided to take the two Perry-class frigates. It is a good bargain,” Kao added, according to a statement released by Lin Yu-fang, the legislator who raised the question.
The two warships, estimated to cost about Tw$7 billion (HK$1.8 billion), will replace two of eight now ageing Knox-class frigates which Taiwan acquired in the early 1990s, Kao said.
Beijing put its first aircraft carrier into service in September this year amid escalating tensions over Tokyo-controlled islands in the East China Sea, which Taiwan also claims.
