The Arms Pipeline: American Weapons Sales to Taiwan and the Backlog That Defines a Relationship

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The United States sells Taiwan weapons. This has been true since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 mandated that the US provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character sufficient to maintain its self-defense capability. The commitment has been honored through administrations of both parties, at varying levels of political visibility and diplomatic cost. It has also produced a backlog of undelivered weapons that, as of the mid-2020s, runs to billions of dollars in contracted but unshipped equipment — a gap between what Taiwan has bought and what it has received that raises serious questions about the operational meaning of the commitment.

The Fighter Gap: Taiwan's Air Force and the Battle It Cannot Win Conventionally

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taiwan’s air force operates approximately 400 combat aircraft, including upgraded F-16A/Bs, the domestically developed Indigenous Defense Fighter, and a dwindling number of older French Mirage 2000s. Against it stands the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, which fields approximately 2,000 combat aircraft including fifth-generation J-20 stealth fighters, advanced Su-35s acquired from Russia, and large numbers of fourth-generation J-10 and J-16 multirole fighters that outperform Taiwan’s F-16s in some performance parameters. The numerical imbalance is significant. The qualitative gap, when the J-20 enters the calculation, is severe. Taiwan’s air force cannot achieve air superiority over the strait in a sustained conventional air campaign against the PLAAF.

F-16 on Taiwan Strait

The Arms Pipeline: American Weapons Sales to Taiwan and the Backlog That Defines a Relationship

The Fighter Gap: Taiwan's Air Force and the Battle It Cannot Win Conventionally