Washington peddling coastal road-mobile Harpoon Block II to Taiwan

Up Media reports that the Republic of China Navy (RoCN) has submitted a plan to buy coastal road-mobile variant of the Boeing Harpoon Block II missile to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.

A Harpoon is launched from Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) during a live-fire exercise. McCain is participating in Multi-Sail 2014, an annual exercise in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility supporting security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) Seaman Jacob Shankle/Released)


Although the AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER is designed to attack land targets, the RoCN has chosen the shorter-range Harpoon Block II instead.

The report said Washington has been asking Taipei since last year to buy more Amercian weapons and the Harpoon was one of the items being peddled to Taiwan.

Taiwan already has the Hsiung Feng II and III coastal road-mobile missiles for attacking land and sea targets. It is suggested that the Tsai government is under pressure from the Trump administration to buy more weapons.

If the purchase goes ahead, Taiwan is the only country in the world to employ all four launch variants of the Harpoon. It already has the AGM-84 for its F-16s, RGM-84 for its warships and UGM-84 for its two Dutch-built submarines.

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