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US Sikorsky anti-submarine helicopters ‘too expensive for Taiwan’
- Island was going to purchase 12 of the aircraft but defence minister says the price is too high
- Delivery of Stinger missiles delayed because of demand from Ukraine
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Taiwan signalled on Thursday that it had abandoned a plan to buy advanced new anti-submarine warfare helicopters from the United States, saying they were too expensive.
Taiwan had earlier said it was planning to buy 12 MH-60R anti-submarine helicopters, made by Lockheed Martin Corp unit Sikorsky, but Taiwanese media reported that the United States had rejected the sale as not being in line with the island’s needs.
Asked in the legislature about recent changes to Taiwan’s purchases of new US weapons, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng mentioned the helicopter case first.
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“The price is too high, beyond the scope of our country’s ability,” he said.
Two other arms purchases have also been delayed – M109A6 medium self-propelled howitzer artillery systems, and mobile Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
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The Raytheon Technologies’ Stingers are in hot demand in Ukraine, where they have been used against Russian aircraft, but US supplies have shrunk and producing more of the anti-aircraft weapons faces significant hurdles.
Chiu said they had already signed the contract for the Stingers and paid for them, and they would press the United States to deliver them.
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