US approves sale of fight drones and loitering missiles to Taiwan | EUROtoday

The State Department of USA gave the inexperienced mild to the potential sale of a fight drone and loitering missile system to Taiwan for an estimated worth of 360.2 million {dollars} (335 million euros), official sources on the island confirmed this Wednesday.

In a press release, the Ministry of National Defense (MDN) Taiwan famous that unmanned aerial automobiles “have become a new tactical option for real combat,” including that the acquired materials can have “immediate recognition and attack capabilities” in opposition to enemy “threats.”

“The Taiwan-US security management team continues to work hard to improve the efficiency of arms sales operations between the two sides. This time, the administrative review time has been significantly reduced. The MDN expresses special gratitude to the team of US security cooperation for their efforts in accelerating arms sales to Taiwan,” the official textual content indicated.

For its half, the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs celebrated the approval of this arms sale and valued the “commitment” of the United States to the “defense” of the island.

“We remain determined to defend peace through force amid the escalating aggression of China“, acknowledged the island's Foreign Ministry via its official X account.

In Washington, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) detailed that the Taiwanese Representative Office within the United States requested the acquisition of 291 drones Altius 600M-V and 720 Switchblade loitering missiles 300, in addition to tools associated to those gadgets, for an quantity of 300 and 60.2 million {dollars} (279 and 56 million euros), respectively.

The US Government has already offered Altius 600 and Switchblade 300 to the Ukrainian Army to include the Russian invasion of its territory.

“The proposed sale serves the national, economic and security interests of the United States by supporting the recipient's continued efforts to modernize its armed forces and maintain a credible defensive capability,” the DSCA stated in a press release.

This sale of US army tools to Taiwan, the fifteenth beneath the US president's administration, Joe Bidencomes simply two weeks after Washington authorised Taipi's potential acquisition of spare elements, parts, provides and equipment for the F-16 fighter for one more $300 million.

Taiwan – the place the Chinese nationalist military retreated after the defeat by the hands of communist troops within the civil conflict (1927-1949) – has been ruled autonomously because the finish of the conflict, though China claims sovereignty over the island, which he considers a rebellious province for whose “reunification” he has not dominated out using pressure.

The Taiwanese subject is likely one of the details of friction between Beijing and Washington, because the US is Taipei's important arms provider and will defend the island within the occasion of a battle.