A cruise missile developed by the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) has reached a range of 1,000km in field tests, defense sources said yesterday.
The test results were encouraging for the CSIST, which has spent several years on the project.
But the Hsiung Feng-IIE cruise missile, the first of its kind to be developed by the CSIST, has yet to undergo more tests to become reliable and deployable.
A prototype of the missile reached a range of 1,000km in a field test earlier this year over an offshore island. The prototype missile made a 20km circle around the island 50 times.
The test successfully found out the maximum range that the missile was capable of, but it failed to show how accurate the missile could be when aimed at a target.
With a range of 1,000km, the Hsiung Feng-IIE should be capable of reaching any important military assets along China's coastline.
But it remains to be seem whether the missile could actually hit the target.
It would be a bigger problem for the missile to try to reach an inland target in China, since it would have to be programmed with maps of inland China's terrain.
The military currently does not have such maps, but the US does.
A defense analyst, who preferred not to be identified, said that -- for the time being at least -- Washington is not likely to provide such critical data to Taiwan, since it might endanger the relations between Washington and Beijing.
The Hsiung Feng-IIE could help neutralize the threat from China's cruise missiles, if it could reach targets inland.
But for the moment, the military has data only for China's coastal terrain, since Taiwan lacks surveillance satellites or long-range reconnaissance aircraft to gather information on inland areas.
Without such vital information, analysts say, the Hsiung Feng-IIE might have limited effects against China -- despite its 1,000km range -- and could be lethal only against targets in China's coastal provinces.
The Hsiung Feng-IIE is a variant of the Hsiung Feng-II anti-ship missile, which the CSIST developed on its own several years ago.
The development of the Hsiung Feng-IIE has been secretly proceeding for some years, with very little information released to the public about its progress.
The military is desperate to possess such cruise missiles in order to counter threats from China's own cruise missiles.
China has deployed a number of such weapons -- in addition to the thousands of ballistic missiles it has -- posing a new threat to Taiwan.
Some of China's cruise missiles are said to have ranges of between 2,000km and 4,000 km.
To deal with the new threat, the military has been installing or upgrading its land-based and air-borne radar systems and developing its own anti-missile weapons systems.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai