Lawmakers unfreeze 74 defence budget items while Stinger LOA and NASAMS stay stuck

Taiwan's Legislative Yuan Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on 4 November unfroze funding for 74 Ministry of National Defense budget items in the 2026 general budget, while leaving several headline US and indigenous weapons programmes unresolved, according to Focus Taiwan, the Taipei Times, United Daily News and the Liberty Times.

Lawmakers agreed to release 54 of 201 frozen items after conditions set with the proposing members were met, and unlocked another 20 items after the ministry filed written reports. The session still left a large residue of frozen lines for later meetings.

Among the items cleared were NT$5 million tied to more than 1,900 man-portable Stinger missiles, NT$200 million for army attack-drone missile systems, NT$100 million for the second phase of a navy next-generation light-cruiser prototype, and NT$80 million for US-made Mk 48 submarine-launched torpedoes.

United Daily News and the Liberty Times reported that the 54 cases cleared with member consent also included spare parts for the army's first M1A2T Abrams tanks after their two-year warranty window, M60A3 engine upgrades, T112 rifle and T75 machine-gun lines, and air-force Advanced Jet Trainer programme fees.

Kuomintang legislator Ma Wen-chun objected that the ministry had put a much larger freeze list onto the agenda, including cases that had not yet met unfreeze conditions. She said the United States had not yet issued letters of offer and acceptance for several high-profile Foreign Military Sales packages, so releasing money would not guarantee deliveries.

Ma specifically cited the Stinger buy, valued at more than NT$10 billion in the wider package, and Apache AH-64E spare parts as still waiting for LOAs. She told the ministry that without an LOA, Taiwan could not spend its way into a firm sale.

Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Chen Chien-yi said the Stinger LOA had been drafted and was under review, and that the ministry wanted the associated funding unlocked so it could make an initial FMS payment as soon as the letter arrived. Ma rejected that framing, saying the condition for release was possession of the LOA itself.

Ma also said Taiwan and the United States had not yet signed contracts for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems intended to help defend the capital, or for additional missiles for Taiwan's F-16V fleet. Those programmes therefore remained outside the day's unfreeze package.

Opposition caucuses kept NT$12.9 billion for seven follow-on Indigenous Defense Submarine boats frozen until the Hai Kun prototype passes sea acceptance tests. CSBC Corp., the lead builder, missed its November 2025 navy delivery target and has been accruing ministry penalties, the reports said.

The hearing followed months in which lawmakers used freezes on undelivered US equipment and unfinished indigenous programmes as leverage over the ministry. The 4 November partial thaw moves spare parts, training munitions and smaller ship and air programmes forward, but leaves the largest air-defence and submarine follow-on decisions parked until LOAs, contracts or Hai Kun acceptance tests catch up.

Defense Minister Wellington Koo attended the same committee business report day as the unfreeze votes. Coverage across Focus Taiwan, the Taipei Times, United Daily News and the Liberty Times framed the session as a partial administrative thaw rather than a clearing of the largest pending air-defence and submarine follow-on programmes.