Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (
"It is a air-to-surface missile with standoff capability which could be used in attacking the enemy's airports," Lee said during a meeting of the legislature's National Defense Committee.
Lee's comment was the first official confirmation of the development of the weapon under the "Ten Thousand Sword" plan by the ministry's Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology.
According to previous media reports, the weapon is a kind of cluster bomb, able to operate from ranges outside enemy defenses.
Lee also told lawmakers, in response to questions, that he prefers the US build the eight diesel submarines that are part of the long-delayed arms procurement budget.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (
Lin noted that US Representative Rob Simmons, who visited Taipei last month, had said the price for the eight subs could drop to around US$8 billion.
"The US has not exported its subs to other countries, and I believe that US subs have many high-tech systems not known to the outside world, so I firmly believe the US can make better quality subs for Taiwan than Europe," Lee said.
Since the US has not built diesel subs for about 35 years, it plans to find a European country that is willing to build the eight subs for Taiwan once the legislature passes the procurement bill, Lee said.
However, Simmons, who met Lee last month during his visit, has said that US Electric Boat has declared itself capable and willing to produce a series of advanced diesel submarines for Taiwan.
The minister also agreed yesterday with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Wen-chung's (李文忠) proposal that top sub experts from around the world be hired as consultants to decide how much money the country should pay for the eight vessels.
Only such a consultancy could resolve the current standoff, Lee Wen-chung said.
Lee Jye said the ministry would ask for a supplementary budget to cover preliminary spending on the subs, such as consultants' fees.
The ministry has previously said that the submarine budget was arrived at by the US Navy through an independent cost estimate system in January 2003, and that the US Navy has refused to negotiate on the budget before the submarine purchase is approved by the legislature.
Lee Jye said he would press the US to separate the cost of designing the subs from building them.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
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