The navy regained its self-confidence yesterday after a successful torpedo test.
The success came after the navy failed to hit a target in the Sept. 4 Hankuang No. 19 exercise.
The first of two torpedoes fired yesterday developed similar problems as the one in the Hankuang, or Han Glory, exercise and failed to hit its target.
PHOTO: REUTERS
But a second try yesterday worked, marking the first success the navy has had in two decades in firing a live torpedo from a submarine.
The torpedo tests were held at a beach in Chialutang, Pingtung County.
The result cheered up navy commander-in-chief Admiral Miao Yung-ching (
"It has helped us regain self-confidence," Miao said in a brief speech after the torpedo tests. "It will also make the public have confidence in us again."
"Despite the success, we will seek to find out what caused the other tests to fail to ensure that no mistakes of the same kind are made again," Miao said.
Yesterday's tests were intended to make up for the navy's failures in the Hankuang exercise, which included a live submarine-launched torpedo and a land-based Chaparral air defense missile. The Chaparral is used by the marine corps.
It was President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) idea that the navy and other armed services launch more tests of weapons systems that developed problems in the Hankuang exercise until they were able to hit the target without fault.
Torpedoes were not the only weapons put to the test in yesterday's live-fire drills.
The Mica air-to-air missile and the Chaparral missile were also tested. Both hit their targets.
The Mica was not launched during the Hankuang exercise because its intended target was mistakenly shot down by a Standard SM-1 missile fired from a Chengkung-class frigate.
The Chaparral was off the mark in the Hankuang exercise.
After the Mica and Chaparral passed the tests, the navy's heavyweight SUT torpedo became the center of attention. The navy had been preparing for the SUT test for several weeks. The navy had fired another live torpedo in a rehearsal on Oct. 8. The test was successful, but could not be officially counted.
The training drills yesterday were supposed to have been completed by noon, but were extended after the first SUT torpedo went out of control.
Initial probes by the navy showed that the wire guiding the torpedo broke during the homing process, a situation similar to what happened in the Hankuang exercise.
The navy said the torpedo sank to the bottom of the sea about 53 minutes after it lost contact with the submarine.
The sea where the torpedo test was held was up to 1,571m deep, the navy said.
"After its batteries run out, the torpedo will sink to the seabed," it said.
A second torpedo test took place at 2:20pm. Six minutes later, the torpedo hit a decommissioned Yang-class destroyer, about 60 nautical miles off the coast.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS