Taiwan has accepted part of an arms deal package offered by the US that includes 13 sets of Phalanx close-in weapons systems (CIWS) and other equipment that will cost NT$9 billion (US$286.6 million), Ministry of National Defense sources said yesterday.
The US in December last year extended a letter of offer and acceptance to Taiwan for an arms package costing about US$1.83 billion.
The package included two decommissioned FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigates, 36 AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicles, 13 MK 15 Phalanx Block 1B ship defense CIWS and upgrade kits, ammunition and support, 250 Block I-92F MANPAD Stinger missiles and other equipment.
Screen grab from the Raytheon Co Web site
Taiwan agreed to buy the frigates in March, the AAV-7 vehicles in May and the Phalanx CIWS last month, the source said.
The CIWS is considered standard equipment on all surface combat ships, the source said, adding that the ministry has deployed the systems in mountainous areas to enhance security at missile bases.
Prior to the signing of the offer last month, the navy had only one MK 15 Block 1B CIWS system on one of its Kidd-class destroyers, the source said.
The MK 15 system is more advanced than the Phalanx systems currently in the Taiwanese arsenal, with the addition of visible light/infrared targeting systems and the ability to switch to manual mode, increasing a surface combat ship’s counterstrike abilities, the source said.
Ministry officials said that delivery of the new systems is expected to be a drawn-out process, with the navy not likely to receive the last batch until June 2024.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s