Two Perry-class guided-missile frigates purchased from the US arrived in Kaohsiung yesterday, an acquisition that the Republic of China (ROC) Navy said will increase its anti-submarine capability.
Flying ROC national flags, the vessels, crewed by Taiwanese, sailed into Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at about 9:30am, where a welcoming ceremony was held by the military.
A commissioning ceremony is slated for July next year, according to military sources.
Photo: CNA
The ships — which were cheaper than Taiwanese-made Cheng Kung-class frigates, the design of which is based on Perry-class frigates — were built in the 1980s.
The navy renamed them Ming Chuan No. 1112 and Feng Chia No. 1115.
They are to join the navy’s 146th fleet based on the outlying island of Penghu, from where they are to patrol the Taiwan Strait, the sources said.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Perry-class frigates have high mobility and are equipped with the SQQ-89 undersea warfare combat system and the SQR-19 sonar system, both of which the military said would beef up its anti-submarine capabilities.
Then-US president Barack Obama signed a bill into law in December 2014 that authorized the sale of four Perry-class frigates to Taiwan.
Taipei budgeted about NT$5.5 billion (US$182 million at today’s exchange rate) in 2014 to purchase two of the ships, which were formerly named the USS Taylor (EFG-50) and the USS Gary (EFG-51) of the US Navy.
Admiral Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光), commander of the ROC Navy, and family members of the crew were at the port to welcome the ships as they docked.
An official who declined to be named said the navy had been working with its US counterpart since May last year to bring the ships to Taiwan, adding that the crew underwent 10 months of tests and training with the US military.
The frigates are to be fitted with new equipment, while officers will be trained with the new ships before they are added into the naval force, the official said.
“Maintaining security and unimpeded passage in the waters around Taiwan is the navy’s greatest responsibility. We hope we will continue to have support in making arms purchases to ensure we can undertake this responsibility,” the sources said.
The numbering of the frigates — 1112 and 1115 — follows a convention in which the last two numbers of a ship’s name cannot add up to four, nor can the last digit be a four, the official said.
Case of all the digits adding up to four are also not used.
Four in Chinese has a similar pronunciation to the Chinese word for “die” (si, 死).
“The idea is that we hope officers will not be distracted by what might be perceived as an ominous ship name,” the official said, adding that as the previous Cheng Kung-class vessel to be added to the fleet was No. 1110, and 1111 adds up to four, the new ships were numbered starting from 1112.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan