US approves $2B arms sale to Taiwan including air-to-air missiles and NASAMS weapon systems

NASAMS have seen action in Ukraine.

The US on Friday approved a potential arms sale package for Taiwan worth nearly $2 billion.

The first part of the package would include three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and 123 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM-ER) missiles, among other things, costing $1.16 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a press release.

An additional $828 million sale would include radar systems, the agency said.

The deal awaits approval by Congress.

The DSCA said the package would improve Taiwan’s “capability to meet current and future threats” by improving its air defenses and helping it provide regional security and increase “interoperability” with the US.

“The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region,” it added.

The NASAMS is a medium-range air-defense system that can be used to defend against aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles.

It was developed jointly by the US firm Raytheon and Norway’s Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace.

The system, which has as range of around 25 miles, has been battle-tested in the Russia-Ukraine war.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in November 2022 that the NASAMS system had up to that point had a 100% success rate in intercepting Russian missiles.

“Their performance, so far, has been very impressive,” he said.

It comes amid China’s continued military presence around Taiwan.

China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province, has regularly conducted military exercises around the island.

A spokseperson for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command called drills that took place earlier this month in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan “a stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces.”

One analyst told B-17 in June that increasing military exercises around the island had the “makings of a blockade.”

The Chinese military has been able to “essentially start mounting an increased tempo of these large-scale drills that have a lot of the makings of a blockade,” Tom Shugart, a former US Navy officer and current adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, said.

Further exercises in May had showed that China’s fleet was “very well suited” for a blockade or quarantine of the island, he added.

Wellington Koo, Taiwan’s defense minister, said on Wednesday that a real Chinese blockade of Taiwan would be an act of war, per Reuters.

B-17 has contacted the Department of Defense for comment.