Taiwanese military authorities have agreed to extend a deal with the United States for US engineers to maintain Taiwan’s Harpoon missiles. The new deal will be valid until September 2025 and will cover a new set of coastal missiles set to arrive in Taiwan over the coming years.
In 2020, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced that the US would sell a package of weaponry to Taiwan including up to 100 Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems.
Taiwan’s military already has three different models of Harpoon missiles covered by an existing maintenance agreement.
Because the existing agreement does not cover the new Harpoon missiles, Taiwan defense authorities have agreed to extend the deal until 2025.
The time extension means that the total cost of the maintenance deal will increase from NT$393 million (US$14.1 million) to NT$1.11 billion (US$40.0 million).