Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

Breaking Down Taiwan’s Arms Backlog, Part 3: Comparing the Trump and Biden Administrations

by November 15, 2023
November 15, 2023
Breaking Down Taiwan’s Arms Backlog, Part 3: Comparing the Trump and Biden Administrations

Eric Gomez and Benjamin Giltner

This is the third of a three‐​part series examining US arms sales to Taiwan. The first article outlined our methodology for determining the weapons systems within the backlog and showed how traditional capabilities made up a majority of the backlog based on dollar value. The second article examined US maintenance sales to Taiwan and showed how traditional capabilities are more expensive to sustain than asymmetric capabilities.

In this article, we compare arms and maintenance sales made under the Trump and Biden administrations to show how US military support for Taiwan has changed over time.

The data used in this article came from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s (DSCA) notices of major arms sales. Because this article compares all sales from the Trump and Biden administrations, it does not distinguish between arms sales that have been delivered to Taiwan and those that are backlogged. For that reason, there is a small difference between the dollar amounts mentioned in the figures below and the dollar amounts for the arms sales backlog. The data were last updated on November 1, 2023.

As shown in Figure 1, the Trump administration announced more sales of weapons and maintenance to Taiwan across all four categories.

The two administrations came closest to one another on sales of maintenance items, with Trump announcing $1.9 billion and Biden announcing $1.6 billion. The Trump administration heavily favored sales of traditional weapons, selling a total of $10.4 billion in traditional capabilities. This was $6.5 billion more than the asymmetric capabilities the administration sold. The gulf between the two administrations in terms of overall arms and maintenance sales is also significant. Trump announced a total of $18.3 billion to Biden’s $4.4 billion.

Figure 1 also clearly shows that the Trump administration is primarily responsible for the current arms sale backlog to Taiwan. Based on data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, nearly every US arms sale announced before the Trump administration took office is now in Taiwan’s hands. The Trump administration essentially ran up a huge arms sale tab with Taiwan. However, due to weapon production timelines, the responsibility of delivering the arms and clearing the tab falls on the Biden administration.

Figure 2 compares the arms and maintenance sales of the two administrations by both the number of sales and dollar value.

While the Biden administration has lagged behind the Trump administration in almost every respect, it has doubled the number of maintenance sales despite a slightly lower dollar value of maintenance sales. This suggests a shift in priorities for arms sales to Taiwan under Biden. Now, the focus is on sustaining what Taiwan already has instead of announcing big‐​ticket items that would further inflate the backlog. Biden still has time in his current term to announce more arms sales. If current trends hold, these future sales will likely come with a relatively small price tag and be focused on either maintenance or munitions.

Many of the most expensive platforms that Trump announced will begin arriving in Taiwan in the next two or three years. This will give the next administration an opportunity to set the tone for future sales as the backlog begins to diminish. Regardless of who wins the 2024 election, it will be essential for the United States to expand Taiwan’s stock of asymmetric capabilities to deter a Chinese invasion.

Taiwan Arms Sales Backlog Excel File

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Massive Cost Overrun on Renewable Energy Project
next post
How Free Is Your State?

You may also like

No, It’s Not Price Controls: Trump’s Executive Order...

May 12, 2025

Two Great First Amendment Decisions by Judge Willett...

January 22, 2024

Changing the Rules in the Face of Increasing...

July 25, 2023

New IRS Tax Gap Estimate

October 11, 2024

FBI Budget

May 19, 2023

Would Congress Abdicate Its Responsibility by Empowering a BRAC‐​like...

August 3, 2023

Arizona Wants to Take Condo Owners’ Property and...

September 29, 2023

A Regulatory Warning from Vice President Vance

February 24, 2025

Will Vermont Be the Next State to Permit...

May 2, 2024

Just Say No to NATO Expansion

November 6, 2024

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Disabling Trump’s “Tariff Button”

      June 5, 2025
    • ‘Sick puppy’ Tim Walz should never have been on Dems’ 2024 ticket, Trump says

      June 5, 2025
    • Federal judge orders Trump to restore funding to Clinton-era agency gutted by DOGE

      June 5, 2025
    • Musk says Trump would have lost 2024 election without him as ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ feud continues

      June 5, 2025
    • Ex-Biden adviser calls Jean-Pierre ‘kinda dumb,’ deletes tweet, says she’s not a ‘genius-level Black woman’

      June 5, 2025
    • ‘Coming for us’: Expert sounds alarm on CCP’s mission to ‘kill Americans’ after FBI makes shocking arrests

      June 5, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,148)
    • Investing (2,010)
    • Politics (15,535)
    • Stocks (3,128)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved