TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's defense minister, Yen Ming, announced to lawmakers on April 14 that the government plans on only acquiring two ex-U.S. Navy Oliver Perry-class frigates. The announcement came just a week after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (House Resolution 3470) authorizing the sale of four decommissioned Oliver Perry-class guided-missile frigates to Taiwan. The bill, which must still be approved by the Senate, authorizes the transfer of the USS Taylor, USS Gary, USS Carr, USS Elrod to the Republic of China (RoC) Navy. Of the four ships only the USS Gary is currently not in acting service. All four ships were commissioned into the U.S. Navy between 1984 and 1985. The age of the warships and the cost of maintaining these ships prompted Taiwanese lawmakers to call for a smaller acquisition of just two of the frigates, with potential savings to be shifted towards more domestically-derived weapons systems.
The acquisition costs for Taiwan of two of the four Perry-class frigates has been estimated at TWD5.6 billion ($183 million), with the required funding already earmarked in Ministry of National Defense spending requests for FY14 and FY15. Taiwan's plan has been to bring these two ships into service no later than 2015, by which time it intends on retiring the first two of its eight aging Chin Yang/ex-Knox class frigates.
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