Taiwan MoD Wants Extra Funds to Boost Defense Capability

Taiwan Ministry of National Defence, TAIPEI: To facilitate defense buildup, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) will ask for a supplementary budget to finance the upgrading of an anti-missile battery and the preliminary spending for the anti-missile aircraft and conventional submarines it plans to buy from the United States, National Defense Minister Lee Jye said Wednesday. 
 
Lee was referring to the upgrading of the capacity of three Patriot PAC-2 batteries already deployed in Taiwan as well as the preliminary spending for the submarines purchase, such as hiring foreign professional military advisers to bargain on Taiwan's behalf with submarine manufacturers in Europe and the United States. 
 
Lee made the remarks while giving a report on the MND's operations at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's National Defense Committee. 
 
He said that if the national defense budget is increased to 2.85 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) next year and 3 percent of GDP in 2008, the ministry will ask that the funds for the anti-missile aircraft and diesel-electric submarines be listed in the regular annual budget. 
 
The MND will also ask to list the purchase of Patriot PAC-3 batteries in the annual budget beginning next March, as a referendum held in tandem with the 2004 presidential election on the purchase of the missiles failed. The referendum law stipulates that an issue cannot be put to referendum again within three years of a previous referendum. 
 
The MND proposed the major arms procurement project, including a squadron of 12 anti-missile P-3C aircraft, six Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries, and eight diesel-electric submarines from the United States, in 2004, but the opposition-controlled legislature has since blocked the deal for various reasons, including the exorbitant price tag and the appropriation of special budgets for the purchase.