Did Joe Biden Stop New Sales of Anti-Ship Missiles for Taiwan?

John Rossomando March 17, 2021

American soldier with flag on background - Republic of China - Taiwan

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Originally published by The National Interest

If Taiwan falls to China, then it would be the end of America’s great-power status.

The U.S. sale of anti-ship missiles to Taiwan is unlikely to happen until 2025, according to a March 9 Naval Post article. China has made it increasingly clear that invasion of Taiwan is a matter of it, not win. Consequently, Taiwan needs all defenses in place as soon as possible.

The Biden administration explained to the Navy that operational and technical issues would delay their deployment.

But are the delays due to intimidation from Beijing?

The original  $2.37 billion deal to acquire four hundred RGM-84L-4 Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles along with their containers and one hundred launchers in 2024 was signed last year.

“The sorts of survivable, low-profile and networked defenses that can survive an initial Chinese attack and be resilient and lethal for weeks or months,” Scott Harold, an analyst at RAND, told Forbes.

These missiles can sink People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA[N]) warships and transports half-way across the Taiwan Strait.

State Department officials approved the transfer in October, prior to the change in administration.

Last month, Chinese Communist Party authorities threatened to impose sanctions on defense contractors including Boeing, which manufactures the Harpoons through its McDonnell Douglas unit. China is Boeing’s largest foreign market. A Boeing representative said that questions about the sale should be directed to the U.S. government.

The Taiwanese defense ministry asked the United States for the Harpoons because they offered more mobility than the domestically produced subsonic Hsuing Feng II and supersonic Hsuing Feng III anti-ship missiles.

If China invaded Taiwan, then mobility equals survivability because moving targets can be harder for the enemy to detect and neutralize than static ones.

The Hsuing Feng series of missiles can be launched from semi-trailers that Taiwan’s defense ministry deems as not as mobile. Supersonic missiles might be able to hit their targets faster than subsonic missiles like the Harpoon, but they cost less and can be deployed in larger numbers.

It conducted a study last summer that found that the Republic of China Armed Forces needed to neutralize 50 percent of the PLA[N] ships in the event of an invasion based on a computer simulation.

Last spring, Taiwan’s Deputy Defense Minister Chang Che-ping said that its current stockpile would leave too many PLA[N] ships afloat in the event of an invasion. Presently, the PLA[N] has nineteen amphibious assault ships of various types, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.

“Our inability to deliver needed capabilities to a key partner like Taiwan undermines any strategy being developed by the Administration, particularly one with an ultimate objective of deterrence,” Vic Mercado, the Trump administration’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and a retired rear admiral, told the Center for Security Policy.

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John Rossomando
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