After the Times reported on April 19 that the U.S. Department of Defense would soon inform the U.S. Congress of Taiwan’s purchase of 40 howitzers, the BBC reported in more detail on April 20 that Taiwan was purchasing the U.S. M109A6 self-propelled guns, which will be deployed in batches in 2021, 2023, and 2025, respectively.
The BBC reported that the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) informed Taiwan in March that the U.S. Department of Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) would soon inform Congress of the sale of the M109A6 self-propelled gun; the Taiwan Army is preparing to begin construction of ancillary facilities, teacher training, overall logistics planning and other pre-production operations this year, and install them in batches in 2023 and 2025.
This will be the first arms sales to Taiwan by the new Biden administration.
Tsai Ing-wen with visiting, Biden friend, former U.S. Senator Dodd on April 15 (Photo credit: Taiwan Presidential Office photo)
The announcement of the arms sales came just days after the Biden administration’s special delegation to Taiwan, led by Dodd, left the country and sparked concern among all sectors in Taiwan. Although Republic of China Defense Minister Qiu Guozheng said in the Taiwan Legislative Yuan on Monday, April 19, that Taiwan had mentioned the arms sale to the U.S. military during an ad hoc meeting with the Biden envoy led by Christopher J. Dodd last week, the issue was not deliberately discussed.
“M109A6 Self-Propelled Gun: “One Locomotive Can Shoot a Company”
U.S. and ROC military information said that the M109A6 self-propelled gun is the main artillery piece for U.S. artillery units and a land artillery piece that is strictly a defensive weapon, not an active attack weapon, and “does not cross the red line.”
The gun is equipped with the Automatic Firing Control System (AFCS), the Global Positioning/Navigation System and the Single Frequency Ground and Air Radio System (SINCGARS), which are not equipped in other models, and can be randomly calibrated for independent operations. It has a maximum range of 24 kilometers; with extended range ammunition, it can reach 30 kilometers; with the precision-guided M982 Excalibur, it can reach 40 kilometers; and it takes less than a minute to fire the first salvo from the time it is ordered to fire.
The gun is also highly mobile and does not require truck towing.
Since this gun can be linked to U.S. military systems and the new Apache fighter aircraft purchased by Taiwan, it makes up for the inability of Taiwan’s existing guns to be linked to military equipment purchased from the United States.
Taiwan’s M109A6 self-propelled gun purchased from the U.S. (Photo credit: screenshot from a Twitter video)
Analysts: Prompt Start of Arms Sales to Taiwan No Change in New U.S. Administration’s Policy Toward Taiwan
Lev Nachman, a researcher on U.S.-Taiwan relations and a visiting scholar at National Taiwan University, said the Biden administration has expressed the administration’s concern for the Taiwan issue since it took office. For example, in January, shortly after the new administration took office, the State Department emphasized that the U.S. government’s support for Taiwan was “rock-solid”; in February, Biden mentioned Taiwan in his first call with Xi Jinping; in March, Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sulliva met in Alaska to discuss the issue. In March, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sulliva expressed concern about Taiwan during their meeting with Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi in Alaska; and last Friday (April 16), the U.S.-Japan joint statement issued after the first official meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Biden again mentioned Taiwan.
The Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific regional policy and Secretary of State Blinken’s statement after taking office indicate that the new U.S. administration has continued the Trump administration’s policy toward Taiwan, which can be described as Trump’s rule and Biden’s follow.
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