At the moment, we know that the US is fighting a lot of wars indirectly where there was already the tension between Ukraine and Russia where the US has helped Ukraine in every step of the way. Apart from that, the US is also backing Israel in order to fight the threat of Hamas terrorists in Gaza and they are supplying weapons to both Ukraine and Israel which has made it impossible for the US to manufacture enough weapons to supply them to Taiwan as well. However, a senior Taiwanese official says that the delays are not as bad as it seems.
“We can already see that the delays won’t be too big,” Koo said. He added, “the US had already made quite large efforts and found all kinds of ways to get us the weapons we need, especially those with asymmetric capabilities.” Koo also mentions that “Officials in Washington have pushed defense contractors to accelerate the process,” but he declined to give specific details as to why there is a delay and what is causing it. He mentions that “The US government is taking steps to speed up the delivery of American weapons systems to Taiwan that has been delayed by factors including shipments to Ukraine”.
“Earlier this year, the first two new F-16s out of 66 set for Taiwan in a potential $8 billion package were supposed to be delivered by Lockheed Martin Corp. between October and December this year. That schedule has since slipped to between July and September of next year” and this is one example of the delays Taiwan is facing in its deliveries. As per one official, “It can take more than five years for Taiwan to receive a Patriot missile system or an F-16 jet”. Taiwan’s head of the National Security Council says “Once other military forces get involved, we don’t think China has the military capability to successfully land and take control of the whole island”. From his statement, he seems confident that the other forces will join Taiwan in its war against China but that would be the start of a World War and we don’t think anyone would want that.
