The US sent Taiwan hundreds of pallets filled with "unserviceable" ammunition and equipment in the past year because the items became wet after being left for months at an air base, according to a government watchdog. The Office of the Inspector-General stated in a report released on Wednesday that Taipei had to spend weeks drying and inventorying the damaged shipments and that this oversight could damage US relations.

Under the presidential drawdown, which permits the US to provide its allies with arms and equipment from its own stockpiles, the Defense Department shipped 504 pallets to Taiwan between November 2023 and March 2024. Because they were delayed for so long, the OIG claimed that at least 340 of those pallets, or roughly two-thirds of the entire shipment, "sustained water damage". Among them were 120 pallets that held "3,000 mildewed body armour plates" and 500 moist, moldy tactical vests, according to the watchdog.

There were also evident indications of damage on the boxes that held the equipment. "We observed disintegrating tri-walls with visible mould spores, wrapped in plastic that had trapped water, facilitating further deterioration and mould growth," the authorities stated. The US Army didn't ask for flights to send the equipment to Taiwan for two months after receiving the boxes, according to the Office of Inspector General (OIG). The shipments were kept at Travis Air Force Base.

The report also stated that they were exposed to inclement weather because they lacked facilities for storing or shielding the ammunition and gear. According to the report, the shipments included 2.7 million rounds of ammunition that were produced in 1983. According to the OIG, some of the rounds were "poorly packaged," and some had expired.

A report cited US diplomats assisting Taiwan's national defence ministry as saying that some ammunition had arrived in open boxes, giving the impression that the rounds were from units that had "cleared out stuff they didn't want." According to the report, the shipment "did not leave senior leaders from the Taiwan MND with a favourable impression," according to a top US official. Six M240B machine guns from the National Guard in Clovis, New Mexico, were also shipped to Taiwan; they were packaged in an unwrapped cardboard box.

The OIG issued a warning, stating that the error could jeopardize Taiwan's trust in the US at a time when Beijing's pressure on Taipei is already intensifying.

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Pete Nguyen told Taiwanese media that the Defense Department would take the OIG's report to heart and streamline its shipment procedure.

"Taiwan is a key security cooperation partner, and the US government is committed to ensuring that equipment delivered to this partner is sufficient for operational use," Nguyen told the Taipei Times. When Business Insider sent a request for comment outside of regular business hours, the Pentagon did not immediately respond.

President Joe Biden signed a $345 million defence package that included the damaged items that were shipped to the self-governing island in July of 2023. Since the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan was reelected, tensions between Taipei and Beijing have reached unprecedented levels, indicating that voters there are still in favour of opposing mainland China.

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