The US State Department has approved the sale of an anti-tank mine-laying system to Taiwan amid the rising military threat from China.
The department on Wednesday said the Volcano system and all related equipment would cost an estimated USD 180 million.
It's capable of scattering anti-tank and anti-personnel mines from either a ground vehicle or helicopter.
The announcement indicated Taiwan would be buying the vehicle-borne version, the kind of general-use weapon many experts believe Taiwan needs more of to dissuade or repel a potential Chinese invasion.
To advertise that threat, China's military sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force directed at the self-ruled island it claims is its own territory, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said on Monday.
China's military harassment of Taiwan has intensified in recent years, along with rhetoric from top leaders that the island has no choice but to accept eventual Chinese rule.
That has seen the ruling Communist Party's increasingly powerful military wing, the People's Liberation Army, send planes or ships toward the island on a near-daily basis.
Between 6 am Sunday and 6 am Monday, 47 of the Chinese planes crossed the median line of the 160 kilometre (100 mile) -Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary once tacitly accepted by both sides, according to the Defence Ministry.
That came after China expressed anger at Taiwan-related provisions in a US annual defense spending bill in what has come to be a standard Chinese practice.
China also conducted large-scale live-fire military exercises in August in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
Beijing views visits from foreign governments to the island as de facto recognition of Taiwan as independent and a challenge to China's claim of sovereignty.