Taiwan may revive its MH-60R ASW helicopter acquisition as one of the top priority items of military investment in FY 2026 defense budget.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Taiwan to increase its defense spending and threatened tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors. Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has vowed to increase defense spending to 3 percent of Taiwan’s gross domestic product (GDP) this year.
It has been reported for months that Taiwan is considering purchasing more defense articles from the U.S, to show its commitment to deepening cooperation with the US in security and efforts to reduce the trade deficit with the U.S.
Taiwanese experts also have urged the government to take advantage of President Lai’s pledge, acquiring Aegis destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, ASW helicopters and other important “large scale” military platforms from the U.S.
Earlier on January, UP MEDIA reported that Taiwan’s navy (ROC Navy) checked what it needed to buy from the U.S, but found that MH-60R ASW helicopters and the advanced encrypted data link system, are large scale military acquisitions, therefore it submitted the once postponed program to the defense ministry again.
The program of purchasing MH-60R ASW helicopters was once postponed because of the changes of Taiwan’s defense strategy and asymmetric warfare related systems, such as land-based Harpoon ASM systems, were given higher priority to purchase.
As Naval News previously reported in February 2022, the Biden administration rejected Taiwan’s request to buy MH-60R ASW helicopters, because the helicopters violate the idea of asymmetric warfare. But in May 2022, then defense minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國æ£) revealed that Taiwan cancelled its plan to buy the helicopters, because the price tag of the helicopters is too high, and Taiwan can not afford them.
According to Taiwan’s state-owned news agency CNA, Taiwan’s defense ministry has declined to comment on media reports about the U.S. arms deal. Although the defense ministry would draft a special budget for the weapons, it is still unclear whether the ministry can secure the budget or not, because the pro-China annexation opposition MPs are still cutting the budget or freezing the funding of all the FY2025 regular budget, including the defense programs, in order to cripple President Lai’s administration.
Current Taiwanese ASW helicopter fleet
Taiwan’s Navy currently operates two types of ASW helicopters. S-70C(M) and 500MD/ASW.
Taiwan confirmed its procurement of S-70C based ASW helicopters from the United States in the 1980s. The US intended to deliver modified land-based S-70Cs outfitted with ASW technology.
But the Taiwanese navy was dissatisfied with the land-based S-70C, after years of negotiations with the US, Taiwan received a ship-based SH-60 variant in the end. Ten S-70C(M)1 (1 signifies the first batch) ordered were delivered in the US in July 1990, and all of them arrived in Taiwan in January 1991.
The second batch of S-70C(M)2 (meaning the second batch) was ordered in June 1997, with the first three delivered in March 2000. In July 2001, all S-70C(M)2s landed in Taiwan and were combat-ready.
The 500MD/ASW was purchased from the United States in 1977 and put into service in 1979. The ROC Navy maintained a fleet of 12 500MD/ASW, but it has been reported that only roughly 9 of them were still operating in 2020. The 500MD/ASW is supposed to be phased out after acquiring the MH-60R helos.
