Taiwan to buy 400 US anti-ship missiles to counter Chinese threat – Bloomberg News
(Reuters) – Taiwan will buy up to 400 land-based US Harpoon missiles amid the growing threat from China, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing the head of a trade group and people familiar with the matter.
A contract with Boeing issued by the US Naval Air Systems Command on behalf of Taiwan is the first time the island has received the mobile, land-based version, the report said, citing Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US Taiwan Business Council. It previously purchased the ship-launched version.
This month, US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy received Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California and stressed the need to speed up arms supplies to Taiwan amid mounting threats from China.
After the meeting, Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s House Select Committee, said he would like to explore ways to get Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan before slated to go to Saudi Arabia.
In 2020, Taiwan announced it would purchase land-based, Boeing-made Harpoon anti-ship missiles as part of its military modernization efforts.
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(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Josie Kao)
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