The U.S. State Department officially announced this week that it has approved the latest arms sales to Denmark. The core project of this purchase, with a total amount of US$425 million (approximately NT$13.6 billion), includes three MH-60R "Sea Hawk" multi-purpose naval helicopters. (Picture: Extracted from the U.S. Navy official website)
[Reporter Luo Tianbin/Taipei Report] The U.S. State Department officially announced this week that it has approved the latest arms sales to Denmark. The core project of this purchase, with a total amount of US$425 million (approximately NT$13.6 billion), includes three MH-60R "Sea Hawk" multi-purpose naval helicopters, as well as matching T700 turboshaft engines, multi-mode radars, suspended sonar and electronic support defense systems. This batch of helicopters equipped with top-notch anti-submarine and reconnaissance capabilities will be subsequently integrated by the main contractor Lockheed Martin after delivery. It is expected that they will be deployed in high-cold areas such as the Arctic Circle and the North Atlantic to counter increasingly frequent underwater threats.
However, this arms sales immediately attracted the attention of international media and military experts, because if calculated carefully, the "average unit price" of Denmark's purchase was as high as US$141.7 million (approximately NT$4.53 billion) per aircraft. Compared with South Korea's decision to purchase 20 additional helicopters of the same type in the same month for a total price of US$2.4 billion (approximately NT$76.8 billion), the average cost of each helicopter in South Korea is only US$120 million (approximately NT$3.84 billion). Comparing the two, Denmark's purchase of one is US$21.7 million (approximately NT$690 million) more expensive than South Korea's, which fully demonstrates the cruel reality of "buying less means suffering a loss" in international arms purchases.
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South Korea uses MH-60R helicopters to conduct anti-submarine operations. (European News Agency file photo)
Senior officials familiar with Taiwan and the U.S. military's procurement analysis today pointed out that the main reason why there is such a large price difference between Denmark and South Korea is the gap in "procurement scale efficiency." South Korea placed a large order for 20 aircraft at once, which can significantly spread the fixed costs of administration, training and software licensing. Moreover, South Korea is already operating the first batch of 12 Seahawks, and its domestic maintenance plants, simulators and other infrastructure have long been built. This additional purchase is just a simple expansion. On the contrary, Denmark only bought three helicopters this time, which was a very small-scale additional purchase. Not only was it unable to enjoy volume discounts, but the high cost of sending technical representatives and logistical support from the United States had to be borne entirely by these three helicopters, which naturally drove up the price.
This price comparison also brought a shocking impact to Taiwan's plan to purchase the same type of anti-submarine helicopters. The Chinese military has just recently issued a new invitation to the United States for the purchase of 12 MH-60Rs code-named "Condor 3" and is actively seeking to include them in the 2027 defense budget. Current military and defense scholars estimate that the total budget for these 12 aircraft is NT$50 billion (approximately NT$1.5 billion to US$1.6 billion), which translates into an average project cost of each aircraft of approximately US$125 million to US$133 million (approximately NT$4 billion to NT$4.25 billion). This means that if Taiwan is indeed successfully introduced in the future, the average cost of each aircraft will not only be much higher than that of South Korea, but will even catch up with the sky-high price of Denmark.
Senior officials pointed out that Taiwan's procurement costs remain high mainly because we have to build a new logistics system "from scratch." Taiwan's current main force is the old S-70C(M) and 500MD helicopters. If it is replaced by the digital MH-60R with Link-16 data link, Taiwan will have to spend a lot of money to purchase an entire simulator training center and build a new dedicated maintenance base in the first order, plus initial training fees for ground crew and pilots. In addition, Taiwan requires "fully equipped" weapons such as Mk 54 torpedoes and Hellfire missiles, as well as the integration of exclusive encryption systems with the Chinese military's active warships. These huge "software and hardware all-inclusive" fixed costs are extremely difficult to amortize on a scale of 12. It is also destined that Taiwan's future Seahawk helicopters will be expensive "sky-high-priced Condors."
