The US State Department has approved the sale of an anti-tank mine-laying system to Taiwan. This is because China’s military threat is getting worse.
The department said on Wednesday that the Volcano system and all of the related equipment would cost about USD 180 million.
It can scatter anti-tank and anti-personnel mines from either a ground vehicle or a helicopter.
The announcement said that Taiwan would be buying the version that can be put on a vehicle. This is the kind of general-use weapon that many experts think Taiwan needs more of to stop or stop a possible Chinese invasion.
China’s military sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a show of force aimed at the self-ruled island it claims as its own, Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Monday.
The PLA would keep sending out such missions until Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party stopped “constantly provoking confrontation and animosity between the two sides, “Colonel Tan Kefei, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Defense, said at a monthly briefing on Thursday.
“The PLA always…firmly defends national sovereignty and territorial integrity, “Tan said.
In its announcement, the State Department said that the Volcano sale “serves US national, economic, and security interests by helping the recipient continue to modernise its armed forces and maintain a credible defensive capability.””
It said Taiwan would have “no trouble adding this equipment to its armed forces” and that the sale would “not change the basic military balance in the region.”
Analysts have different ideas about what Taiwan’s top defence priorities should be, with some calling for big-ticket items like advanced fighter jets.
Others argue for a more flexible force that is heavily armed with land-based missile systems to target enemy ships, planes, and landing craft.
China has a huge advantage in both people and equipment, so Taiwan has no choice but to choose a more “asymmetric” approach “approach, so they say.
