Lockheed wins $920 million in PAC-3 orders

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, said it received $920 million in additional orders for the most advanced Patriot missile system from Taiwan and the U.S. Army.

The orders in December include the third sale of PAC-3 missiles to Taiwan, Richard McDaniel, Lockheed’s vice president for the PAC-3 missile, said Monday in an interview. The U.S. Army purchase is its 14th acquisition of PAC-3 missiles.

The sales announced Monday and the two prior orders are part of Taiwan’s request for as many as 444 PAC-3 missiles at a potential value, if all options were exercised, of $5.9 billion, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles overseas arms sales.

President George W. Bush’s administration notified Congress in October 2008 that Taiwan was interested in buying as many as 330 PAC-3s and related equipment for as much as $3.1 billion. President Barack Obama’s administration told lawmakers in January 2010 of its intention to sell an additional $2.81 billion in Patriot anti-missile systems to Taiwan, including 114 PAC-3 missiles and firing units made by Raytheon Co.

At the time, China said it “firmly” opposes the sale. Monday, telephone calls and an email to Chinese embassy spokesman Geng Shuang requesting comment were unsuccessful.

McDaniel said the missiles in the third order for Taiwan will be delivered in 17 months and declined to disclose how many were included in the order.

The missiles are intended to improve Taiwan’s air-defense capabilities against short-range missiles that are part of a modernization tilting the military balance across the Taiwan Strait in China’s favor, the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its latest annual report. The imbalance is “making it less likely that a peaceful resolution to the Taiwan issue will occur,” the panel said.

The Pentagon’s 2010 annual report on the China-Taiwan balance said 1,050 to 1,150 missiles were stationed opposite the island, the same unclassified tally as in 2008. Still, the Chinese have improved the effectiveness of the weapons, according to the Pentagon.

China considers Taiwan — known as Formosa after 2 million Nationalists fled the communist takeover in 1949 — a renegade province. The island should be reunited with the mainland by force if necessary, according to China’s policy.

Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland, also has orders for its PAC-3 missiles for the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.