Taiwan Arms Backlog, October 2024 Update: New Air Defense Sales and Javelin Delivery

Table of Contents

• In October 2024 Congress received notification of two new arms sales for 1
• Taiwan and the Ministry of National Defense MND confirmed the final 1
• Figure 1 shows the current composition of the backlog by category of 1
• All US arms sales to Taiwan in 2024including the last five in a roware 3
• This recent focus on asymmetric capabilities means that the proportion of 3
• Per Table 1 which shows an itemized list of capabilities in the backlog the 4
• Put differently the United States is selling better types of weapons to meet 4
• Taiwanʼs most pressing security threat which is good news for Taiwanʼs 4
• New Air Defense Sales 6
• The most significant development in October 2024 was congressional 6
• Missile Systems NASAMS and 828 million for an unspecified number 6
• NASAMS is a ground-based air defense system that can use multiple types 6
• Russian cruise missiles and drones. Compared to the Patriot system which 6
• Taiwan has also purchased from the United States NASAMS has a shorter 6
• 1.16 billion is a steep price for three batteries . 6
• Both the NASAMS batteries and the mobile radar systems have asymmetric 6
• Updated MND Report Confirms Javelin Delivery 6
• The second major development in the Taiwan arms sale backlog in October 6
• 2024 was the publication of an MND document with updated information 6
• The October 2024 MND document indicates that the July 2019 sale of 400 6
• Javelin anti-tank missiles was fully delivered to Taiwan in July 2024. 6
• According to the MND report several Javelin missiles were test-fired in the 6
• Finally the new MND report provided new information about two delayed 6
• However production problems and quality control failures delayed delivery. 6
• The October 2024 MND document claims that the missiles have passed 6
• The MND report also states that delivery of newly built F16 Block 70 7
• Taiwan Arms Backlog Dataset October 2024 7