New Stingers in Taiwan Come From US Backlog

A Department of State official informed The Hill on Wednesday that Taiwan finally received the Stinger missiles promised from a 2019 shipment that had been backlogged.

The 250 FIM-92 Stingers and four production verification flight test versions of the missile arrived, in addition to 108 AN/PAS-13 Thermal Weapon Sights, 108 Gripstock Control Groups, and dozens of other supplies.

It comes after United Daily News reported that a batch from the United States, delivered in a Boeing 747 cargo plane at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, was received by the country’s Defense Ministry last Thursday.

“In 2019, we notified a proposed [foreign military sale] case to TECRO [Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States] for this system,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hill.

“As such, this case predates authorities included in Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act (TERA) as incorporated into the FY23 [Fiscal Year 2023] National Defense Authorization Act,” the statement added.

According to Army Recognition, Taiwan currently stocks 1,800 Stinger missiles, including variants like the dual mount Stinger and the AN/TWQ-1 Avenger self-propelled surface-to-air system.

The small island nation is also purported to have an air-launched version of Stinger missiles adapted for AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning responded to reports of the delivery on May 26, characterizing it as “extremely wrong and dangerous.”

“From U.S. politician’s clamoring for ‘destroying TSMC’ to arming the island of Taiwan, … it is all too obvious that the U.S. would stop at nothing, even if it means destroying Taiwan, to contain China,” Mao said.

In the meantime, U.S. lawmakers are pushing the Biden administration to find solutions to the $19 billion backlog in defense deliveries, The Hill noted.