On June 7, 2019, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense confirmed that Taiwan has signed a $2 billion dollar weapons deal with the Trump administration, which includes a purchase of 108 M1A2T (M1A2C export variant for Taiwan) Abrams battle tanks. Taiwanese defense officials intend to use the M1A2T Abrams battle tank to "replace Taiwan’s aging American-made M60A3 battle tanks and the Taiwanese-manufactured M48H CM11 tank". On July 8, 2019, The U.S. State Department has approved the sale to Taiwan of new M1A2T Abrams tanks despite People's Republic of China's (PRC) criticism and protest of the deal. The deal includes 122 M2 Chrysler Mount Machine Guns, 216 M240 machine guns, 14 M88A2 HERCULES vehicles, and 16 M1070A1 Heavy Equipment Transporters. General Dynamics Land Systems will build the tanks at Anniston Army Depot, Alabama, and at Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio. The final signing of the Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) is confirmed on December 21, 2019. The tanks are the first sale of new tanks for ROC Army in decades from the US. Surplus M1A1 tanks were previously rejected by previous US administrations, including George W. Bush in 2001. Current ROC tanks are used M60A3 tanks and locally manufactured M48 tanks in which the initial variants are first produced in between the 1950s and 1960s.