Taiwan Attempts to Row Back US Navy Secretary's Comments on Arms Sales
Taiwanese officials have been busy downplaying a comment by newly-appointed Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, who told a Senate committee last week that the Trump administration has put a $14 billion weapons sale to the self-governing island on hold.
"Right now we’re doing a pause [on Taiwan military sales] in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury – which we have plenty," Cao said. "We’re just making sure we have everything, then the foreign military sales will continue when the administration deems necessary."
Taiwan depends in large part on the United States for the supply of interceptors and precision-guided weaponry that it needs to deter China from any future attempt to reunify the island by force. The U.S. and its overseas defense customers need the same finite supply of munitions for active conflicts - like the defense of Israel, the UAE and Saudi Arabia from Iranian missile and drone attacks, or the defense of Ukraine from Russian ballistic missiles.
The sale of these same weapons to Taiwan is a priority for the administration; the White House would prefer to see America's allies take on responsibility for paying for their own defense, rather than relying upon the umbrella protection of the U.S. military. War gaming shows that a well-armed Taiwan - with its own, localized shore batteries and air defense systems - would be better able to withstand Chinese attack.
Taiwanese officials were quick to brush off Cao's comments. Lin Chia-lung, Taiwan's foreign minister, told lawmakers on Monday that Cao was "not the final policymaker" when it comes to foreign arms sales. Defense minister Wellington Koo Li-hsiung sounded a similar note, telling Taiwan's senate that there has been no formal notice of a delay on the sale and that "we remain cautiously optimistic about the second [$14 billion] batch of military procurement."
In suggesting that the U.S. might need to adjust its plans in order to keep more munitions for its own requirements, Cao also appeared to contradict past comments from other members of the administration about the state of U.S. stockpiles. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted that there is an abundance of weaponry in the U.S. inventory. "The munitions issue has been foolishly and unhelpfully overstated. . . . We know exactly what we have. We have plenty of what we need," Hegseth told lawmakers.
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According to the Washington Post, the U.S. military expended about 200 high-end THAAD air defense interceptors to defend Israel from Iranian ballistic missiles during the recent hostilities, about half of the entire inventory, along with about 100 SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors launched from U.S. Navy warships in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Separate estimates from the Center for Strategic and International Studies indicate that about 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles (roughly one third of the U.S. inventory) were used against Iranian targets in the first four weeks of the operation. This may also have implications for U.S. allies: Last week, the Financial Times reported that Japan's government has been formally informed that it should expect a delay of up to two years on delivery of a consignment of 400 Tomahawk missiles. The first of the missiles were delivered for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force earlier this year.
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