Taiwan says the United States has offered it alternatives to the M109A6, including truck-based rocket launchers made by Lockheed Martin called the high mobility artillery rocket system, or HIMARS.

Chiu said they were still considering their options on that.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, is undertaking a military modernisation program to improve its capabilities to fend off a Chinese attack, including with precision weapons like missiles.

President Tsai Ing-wen has championed the concept of “asymmetric warfare”, which involves developing high-tech, highly mobile weapons that are hard to destroy.

US officials have been pushing Taiwan to modernise its military so it can become a “porcupine”, hard for China to attack.

China has been ramping up its own military modernisation and pressure against Taiwan as it seeks to force the democratically governed island to accept Beijing’s rule.

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Chiu said the recently - he did not give a timeframe - there were many “enemy ships” in the waters around Taiwan, which “in principle stand off” with Taiwanese forces, though he did not give details.

Eight Chinese naval vessels, including the aircraft carrier the Liaoning, passed between islands in Japan’s southern Okinawa chain on Monday, an area that is to Taiwan’s northeast.

Reuters