Taiwan Arms Sale Backlog, May 2026 Update

Abrams Delivered

Authors: Joe O’Connor & TSM Staff

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May 2026 brought a major shift in arms sales to Taiwan. Taiwan’s legislature agreed to a lower ceiling for the DPP’s proposed special defense budget, and the Xi-Trump summit raised questions about the future of U.S. sales to Taipei. In May, Congress received no new Foreign Military Sales (FMS) notifications, and no existing sales were delivered. The total value of FMS cases notified to Congress but not yet delivered to Taiwan is still $29.72 billion.

Figure 1 shows how the backlog is divided among asymmetric weapons, traditional weapons, and munitions. Arms sales that are only partly delivered are marked in yellow-orange. Table 1 lists all arms sales in the backlog with the latest status updates. Partially delivered sales are shown in italics, while newly announced and fully delivered sales are marked with bold and underlining.

In response, President Lai Ching-te and other DPP officials expressed concerns that domestic production programs would not have continued funding, including Strong Bow ABM systems and “Sharp Kite” drones. Opposition lawmakers, including Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Huang Kuo-chang, celebrated the budget act, both expressing a desire to maintain oversight and not rubber-stamp the executive.

Trump-Xi Summit Sows Doubts About Sales to Taiwan

Mid-May was marked by a summit in Beijing between Presidents Trump and Xi, where the latter warned that the United States and China could find themselves in “confrontation or even conflict” over Taipei. For purposes of arms sales, the summit yielded additional doubts about future U.S. policy towards Taiwan. Immediately after the summit, on May 15, Trump stated he “will make a determination over the next fairly short period” about arms sales to Taiwan, and dismissed the “Six Assurances,” a set of U.S. policies towards Taiwan developed in 1982. In an interview with Fox News several days later, Trump said that despite U.S. arms sales, the odds are against Taiwan in a conflict, and that he was pausing the latest U.S. sale to Taiwan to use as a “very good negotiating chip” with China. This decision point on sales escalated in late May, when Trump stated he would speak with President Lai before deciding on the sales. On May 30, CBS reported that Trump decided not to speak with Lai, continuing a trend of no direct calls between U.S. and Taiwanese leaders since 1979.

In May, several senior Pentagon officials offered additional justification for a pause in arms sales to Taiwan. On May 21, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao told a Senate appropriations subcommittee that the U.S. has paused sales pending further talks with Beijing, including over the conflict in the Middle East. At the Shangri-La Conference on May 29, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated that the pause was not due to munitions stockpile concerns, stating that he would “decouple the two” [a pause in sales and Middle East conflict-related munitions shortages].

These inconsistencies are not good for Taipei and create uncertainty for the backlog. A reduction in sales would likely mean that the topline number of $29.72 billion would decrease over time as sales are completed; but a total pause in sales to Taiwan might be disastrous.

Case Updates and Related Contract Awards

There were few case updates in May, as much of the focus was on special defense budget spending and the Trump-Xi summit. In late May, Liberty Times reported that delivery of M109A7 Paladin self-propelled howitzers would not begin until 2030. Reportedly, this is tied to production capacity and delays in the queue. This sale of Paladins, notified in December 2025, consists of 60 M109A7s, 60 ammunition carriers, 13 recovery vehicles, and over 4,000 precision-guidance kits.
On May 12, the U.S. Navy awarded a $12 million contract for command, control, communications, and computers (C4) enterprise services for Taiwan, including extension options that would bring the total to $68 million. It is assessed that this contract award might apply to an FMS case for C4 modernization worth $265 million, notified in December 2024. 

Conclusion

Taiwan’s arms sale backlog remained steady at $29.72 billion through the end of May 2026. The Legislative Yuan’s passage of a reduced special defense budget and initial funding for December’s FMS cases are positive developments, but additional appropriations will be necessary to keep these purchases moving forward. Meanwhile, the reported Paladin delivery delay and the Trump administration’s inconsistent statements on future sales show that both production capacity and political considerations continue to affect the backlog. The coming months will indicate whether Taiwan can secure the remaining funding and whether Washington will resume notifying Congress of new arms sales.