U.S. agrees to HIMARS payment delay; talks on other systems ongoing: MND

Taipei, March 30 (CNA) The United States has agreed to Taiwan's request to defer the deadline for an initial payment on a key U.S.- made weapons system amid a budget impasse, Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said Monday at a legislative session.

Koo confirmed that the first payment for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) can be postponed beyond the March 30 deadline, likely to around May when the U.S. expects to finalize a contract with a supplier for the US$4.05 billion HIMARS sale.

For three other weapons systems also approved for sale to Taiwan but also facing budget issues, Koo said the military was in talks with the U.S. on payment deferrals for them as well.

According to Koo, the initial payments for the four planned purchases total approximately US$79 million.

The U.S. announced the sale of the HIMARS and the three other systems -- M109A7 self-propelled howitzers (US$4.03 billion, TOW anti-tank missiles (US$353 million), and Javelin missiles (US$375 million) -- on Dec. 17, 2025 as part of a broader US$11.1 billion arms package.

The U.S. then sent letters of offer and acceptance (LOAs) for the four weapons systems in early February and early March, which Taiwan needed to sign by March 15 and March 26, respectively, and then follow-up on with a first payment on each system.

An LOA is a binding document confirming that a foreign government agrees to purchase military equipment under a regulated U.S. program. It also authorizes the U.S. government to contract with defense manufacturers to procure the systems.

The Legislature authorized the Cabinet to sign the LOAs just before the March 15 deadline was reached, even though funding for the first payment had yet to be secured.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party government wants to pay for most of the systems in the US$11.1 billion arms package and other big-ticket defense needs through a NT$1.25 trillion supplementary budget.

But that remains in limbo because of a lack of support from opposition parties.

The Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP), which hold a combined majority in the Legislative Yuan, have proposed their own supplementary funding bills of NT$380 billion and NT$400 billion, respectively, with no compromise seemingly in sight.