As a part of an $11.1 billion in arms sale to the Republic of China Armed Forces authorised by the U.S. Division of Struggle, the US is predicted to switch 420 ballistic missiles from the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) for deployment on Taiwan island, which might be particularly aimed on the Chinese language mainland. The sale of 82 HIMARS rocket artillery techniques and 420 ATACMS missiles are valued at over $4 billion, with broader arms gross sales together with. anti-tank missiles, single use drones, howitzers and a variety of different gear. The switch of brief vary ballistic missiles will permit the Republic of China Army to threaten crucial targets on the Chinese language mainland, together with each key infrastructure and main army amenities, marking a serious escalation in American arms provides to the service.
Previous the newest authorised sale, the Republic of China Ministry of Defence had already ordered 84 launch automobiles, with the primary batch of 11 launchers delivered in November 2024, whereas the primary M142 launcher models was fashioned in early July 2025. The republic primarily based in Taipei claims to be the only real official authorities of the Chinese language nation, putting it a state of civil struggle with the Folks’s Republic of China authorities primarily based in Beijing. Taipei’s lack of worldwide recognition from the United Nations and all however twelve UN member states has made arms gross sales extremely controversial, with prior U.S. administrations because the Nineteen Seventies having remained extremely constrained within the varieties of kit they offered. ATACMS have confirmed to be able to having excessive impacts for each bombardment of strategic targets, and for tactical strikes, as demonstrated by their in depth fight use by Ukrainian and supporting Western forces in opposition to Russia.
Successes achieved utilizing the ATACMS the Ukrainian theatre have included the destruction of two launchers from S-400 air defence techniques in November 2024, the destruction of one of many system’s lengthy vary radars in January, and the destruction of additional radars in June, in addition to profitable neutralisation of Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile launchers earlier that month. Provides to the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been, nevertheless, far bigger in scale than these made to the Republic of China Armed Forces, leading to a critical depletion of shares in the US. The techniques are anticipated to have a lot decrease utility within the Taiwan Strait in comparison with in Ukraine as a result of Chinese language mainland’s considerably higher digital warfare and air defence capabilities than Russia, in addition to as a result of a lot smaller numbers being delivered and the smaller dimension of the entrance which the mainland’s Chinese language Folks’s Liberation Army might want to defend from assaults, which is only a fraction of the scale of the frontier that Russia has needed to defend.
The US’ skill to ship ATACMS and different gear to the Republic of China Armed Forces inside an appropriate time interval has more and more been dropped at query, as gear transfers have confronted repeated delays due largely to industrial shortfalls within the U.S. The most recent knowledge from the Taiwan Arms Gross sales Backlog Tracker has offered a sign of the foremost delays in arms provides to the Republic of China Armed Forces, with excellent backlogs having reached over $21.45 billion. The delays in deliveries of F-16 Block 70 fighters specifically has prompted important controversy, with Premier Cho Jung-tai having in October acknowledged that the federal government didn’t rule out “taking authorized motion in opposition to the producer.” The continued excessive requirement for ATACMS within the Ukrainian theatre, and excessive demand from European shoppers, may doubtlessly sluggish deliveries to the Republic of China Armed Forces.
