Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense is preparing to host long-term U.S. policy liaisons under a joint defense assessment program budgeted at more than NT$470 million through 2028, a staffing model Taipei hopes will tighten coordination on arms deliveries, contingency planning and industrial cooperation without replacing existing military training channels.
What the program covers
According to defense analysts cited in Taipei media this week, the U.S. Department of Defense would assign representatives from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and from the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research center, to work alongside Taiwanese counterparts at ministry headquarters. The arrangement is framed as assessment and policy alignment, not command authority.
The spending line runs from 2026 through 2028 and arrives as the air force integrates the first two F-16V Block 70 fighters delivered under the Feng Hsiang program after a trans-Pacific ferry with aerial refueling stops. Those jets landed at Chihhang Air Base in Taitung County, renewing debate about whether new fighters should be concentrated on the east coast for depth or dispersed for survivability.
Why liaisons now
Retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery told reporters that pairing fresh hardware with early-warning aircraft and upgraded air-to-air missiles would maximize the F-16V investment. Liaison officers could help translate that shopping list into prioritized funding requests on both sides.
Taiwanese strategists also want help harmonizing software upgrades, logistics contracts and cyber defenses that increasingly ship with American weapons packages. The ministry has expanded English-language instructor programs for pilots and maintainers; policy desks are the next layer.
Political sensitivities
Any permanent foreign presence at a defense ministry triggers domestic scrutiny in Taipei, where opposition lawmakers demand transparency on costs and mandates. Officials stress the liaisons would operate under existing agreements and focus on analysis, not troop deployments.
Washington, meanwhile, must balance support for Taiwan with managing Beijing’s reactions. Embedding analysts in Taipei is less visible than port calls but still signals sustained engagement.
Industrial spillovers
Defense contractors on the island hope the assessment team will clarify which maintenance work must return to U.S. depots versus local depots certified under Foreign Military Sales rules. That affects jobs at Taichung and Kaohsiung aerospace parks.
Cybersecurity firms also expect requirements to harden command networks that will carry more U.S.-supplied data links as unmanned systems enter service.
Timeline and oversight
Legislative committees are likely to request quarterly reports on liaison activities and deliverables, especially after recent debates over resilience budgets and disaster relief spending. If the program proceeds on schedule, ministry staff should see embedded U.S. analysts before the 2027 Han Kuang exercise cycle, giving both sides a full year to integrate workflows ahead of larger F-16V batches.