Taiwan has test-fired for the first time a locally developed submarine-launched missile designed to counter the threat of China’s fast-expanding navy, a report said yesterday.
An unknown number of Hsiung Feng II (HF-2, “Brave Wind”) ship-to-ship missiles developed by the military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology were launched during a night drill late last month, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported.
The drill was part of the navy’s five-year project to enhance the capabilities of two Dutch-built Chienlung (劍龍, “Sword Dragon”)-class submarines acquired in the late 1980s, it said, citing an unnamed military source.
“Although Taiwan has only two combat-ready submarines, once they are armed with such missiles, they will be able to serve as a deterrent to the Chinese naval fleets,” the source said.
The Liberty Times said the program to upgrade the submarines with the HF-2 missile was known as the “Juilung” (瑞龍, “auspicious dragon”) project.
The navy operates a fleet of four submarines, but only the two Dutch-built boats could be deployed in the event of war. The other two were built by the US in the 1940s and are used mainly for training.
The Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the report.
The military has also put into service land-based and air-launched HF-2s, which have a range of 150km.
Analysts say the missile will give the two subs beyond-vision striking capability that could be used to offset the threat of China’s naval fleet, which has undergone rapid modernization.
Additional reporting by Staff Writer
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant