Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has announced a years-long delay for the delivery of U.S. howitzers, citing limited American production capacity, in a blow to the island democracy’s military upgrades. A second delivery of Stinger antiaircraft missiles may also be affected. Neither delay has been directly connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but American military aid to Kyiv’s forces is reportedly depleting weapons stockpiles and straining production. Unless an alternative is agreed to, delivery for the first batch has been pushed back from 2023 to 2026 at the earliest, during which Taiwan would remain reliant on decades-old artillery systems. Recently...
