The US Navy said Friday it had reached a tentative deal to refurbish 12 maritime patrol aircraft for a long-awaited transfer to Taiwan as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China. Taiwan signed the formal paperwork in December 2007 for the surplus P-3C Orion aircraft, said Lieutenant Clay Doss, a Navy spokesman. The turboprop-driven P-3C is designed for hunting submarines.
"A tentative agreement has been reached" for a $1.3 billion refurbishing job by Lockheed Martin Corp, though a contract has not been awarded yet, he said. The progress toward supplying the aircraft was announced as Clinton was arriving in China for her first visit as President Barack Obama's top diplomat. Earlier in the week, Kyodo News Agency had said the P-3C's were now on track for delivery to Taiwan in 2013, citing a senior Taiwan legislative aide.
China was the last stop on a week-long tour of Asia that earlier took Clinton to Tokyo, Jakarta and Seoul. China strongly opposes US arms sales to Taiwan, which Beijing has regarded as a renegade province since the 1949 communist victory in a civil war. Doss said the P-3C aircraft, which are no longer in production, would be refurbished in the United States by Lockheed, the Pentagon's No 1 supplier. They are being stored at the so-called Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Tucson, Arizona, he said.