In order to develop the assault vehicle model of the "Clouded Leopard" armored vehicle, the Taiwan military tried to import the M68A2 type 105-mm tank gun from the United States, but at the end of last year, the news came out that the US side refused to sell it, and the introduction of the main gun was blocked. This year, taiwan media reported that an American company that the Taiwan military's "Zhongshan Academy of Sciences" (hereinafter referred to as Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences") had previously contacted when purchasing artillery was even more directly closed after the procurement failed.
In the early morning of today (June 14), Taiwan's "United News Network" released a report that Taiwan's "Zhongshan Science Research Institute" had a "bizarre process" in the rejection of two M68A2 105 mm guns from the United States, and the report said that Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" first found an agency procurement company near Taiwan's legislature, and then found a "black bear company" in the United States to help the agency company lobby the US government, Congress and the military, but between 2019 and 2020, "nothing was achieved". After the relevant manufacturers in the United States refused to sell artillery in 2020, the "Black Bear Company" was immediately closed. Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" denied on the 13th that it had hired a commissioned agent or public relations company to lobby the United States, and said that it would still "carry out" the research and development evaluation of armored assault vehicle prototypes as planned.
The M68A2 105 mm tank gun is the same main gun of the U.S. M1128 "Stryker" MGS mobile gun system
Wen Yuxia, a public opinion representative of the Kuomintang Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission, said that it is rare for the Taiwan military to purchase a small amount of military supplies, but it is necessary to use a public relations company to lobby the United States, and Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" and Taiwan's "Armament Bureau" have never disclosed this matter. And properly explain the external doubts.
The Taiwan military's plan to install a 105 mm gun with the "Clouded Leopard" armored vehicle was first proposed in 2007, and the military fans on the island once called the car the nickname "Black Bear", which was once "frozen" after 2008 and restarted in 2017. According to the report, the turret was originally entrusted to Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" to develop, but Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" did not purchase the two 105-millimeter tank guns needed through Taiwan's "Armaments Bureau." Instead, it sought out a "Mingwen Enterprise Co., Ltd." near Taiwan's legislature as a procurement agent, and then found the "Black Bear Company" in Maryland, THE United States, and entrusted it as an agent for lobbying the United States. The "United News Network" said in the report that Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" to find the "Black Bear Company" to cooperate, the US Department of Justice has public information to check, and coincidentally, the nickname of the "Clouded Leopard" installation of the 105 mm gun was also "Black Bear", and the Taiwan "Chinese Academy of Sciences" to purchase M68A2, first look for procurement agents, and then find "Black Bear Company" to lobby to promote the purchase of this behavior, and the usual procurement procedures are "very different.".
(Data map) Chen Shui-bian period "Clouded Leopard" armored vehicle prototype, of which the 105 mm gun on the vehicle is directly appropriated M68A1 gun on the M48H "Yonghu" tank
(Data map) The self-propelled mortar of the second generation of "Clouded Leopard" armored vehicle platform, the "Clouded Leopard" assault vehicle in this article will be developed on the basis of the same second-generation "Clouded Leopard"
The report went on to write that this "black bear company" was only established in 2018, which is the second year that the Taiwan military decided to restart the development of the "Clouded Leopard" assault vehicle, and in 2019, the "Black Bear Company" assisted in arranging for the military representatives of the Taiwan authorities to meet with two US lawmakers in the United States in order to help promote the purchase of artillery, and arranged for the military representatives of the Taiwan authorities to meet with the director of the "Waterfleet" arsenal in New York State. However, when the US factory refused to sell the two guns, the "Black Bear Company" stopped the cooperative relationship with the Taiwan authorities in May 2020, and in October 2020, it declared to the US Department of Justice to stop business, on the grounds that "the purpose of the company's existence disappeared", as if the "Black Bear Company" was a "leather bag company" opened for the purchase of these two 105 guns for the Taiwan "Chinese Academy of Sciences".
The Taiwan military has declared that the agent "has not obtained an export license" and is unable to deliver the goods and is preparing to "file a lawsuit," but according to the information declared by the "Black Bear Company" to the US Department of Justice, the relevant export license has been obtained, and it is the US manufacturers who are unwilling to sell because the purchase volume is too small. Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" said that the procurement case was announced in 2019, bidding and bid decision procedures, and had been terminated due to "the manufacturer failed to deliver according to the agreement" and sought compensation through judicial channels, and also said that it was still carrying out the "first prototype car research and development evaluation" work according to the plan.