Taiwan ‘ready to move quickly’ to seal deal on F-16 fighter jets from US

Taiwan has signalled to US officials that it will move swiftly to complete the purchase of 66 new F-16 fighters once congressional foreign relations committees complete their review this month, according to a US State Department official.

The department formally notified Congress on August 20 that it approved the sale, which includes munitions, defensive electronics and a fire-control radar that would allow precision-guided missiles and bombs to be launched from greater distances.

Once the deal is approved by Congress – there has been no sign it will be blocked – Taiwan must submit a “letter of offer and acceptance” that gets translated into a signed contract with delivery dates.

“According to our counterparts in Taiwan and the Taiwan representative’s office” in the US “they anticipate a quick move on their part” to finish the F-16 deal, assistant secretary of state Clarke Cooper said.

“If we are talking about the F-16s [alone] then the indicators are that’s a relatively quick turnaround from Taipei,” he said.

Beijing, which considers Taiwan part of its territory, has strongly objected to the sale of the jets built by Lockheed Martin. Hua Chungying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, said last month that if US arms sales were not stopped “the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the US will have to bear all the consequences”.

Congress has already approved a separate potential transaction for US$2 billion to sell Taiwan 108 M1A2 Abrams tanks, but no contracts have been announced for that deal.

“With every partner, we’re always looking at not only their security requirements, we are looking at how they address it at home” in terms of budgets, Cooper said.

Negotiating a contract sometimes takes months and does not always result in a sale.

But Taiwan’s cabinet this month approved a special budget bill for the F-16 purchases, its defence ministry said last week, so the US approval process is in sync with Taiwan’s budget cycle.

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“I strongly favour this sale going forward as quickly as possible,” Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Friday.

“I remain concerned, however, that the administration created the appearance that our security commitment to Taiwan is up for negotiation with Beijing over US-China trade issues.”

The US, previously wary of antagonising Beijing, has not sold advanced fighter jets to Taiwan since president George H.W. Bush announced the sale of 150 F-16s in 1992. The Obama administration rejected a similar Taiwanese request for new jets but agreed to update its existing fleet.

Even if Taiwan moves quickly to complete the F-16 deal, there is a question as to how soon they can be delivered. Taiwan would be the fourth customer for the latest model of Lockheed’s fighter, called the Block 70. They are being assembled at the contractor’s new facility in Greenville, South Carolina, which opened in April.

The first Block 70 jets are expected to roll off the line in late 2021, bound for Bahrain. Slovakia and Bulgaria are the other customers with orders.

It takes 36 to 39 months for the first aircraft to be delivered after a contract is signed, depending on customer requirements, according to Lockheed data.