Despite hitting a snag in a recent bidding process, the navy is proceeding with the development of a stealth 500-tonne fast attack missile boat that is already being hailed as Taiwan’s “carrier killer.”
Plans for the indigenous development of the 500-tonne corvette were first made public in 2009. In April the following year, Deputy Minister of National Defense Lin Yu-pao (林於豹) told the legislature that design work as part of the Hsun Hai (迅海, “Swift Sea”) program was completed and that bidding would be held this year.
The legislature last year passed a NT$24.98 billion (US$853.4 million) budget to build between seven and 11 corvettes, with delivery scheduled for 2014. The boats are reportedly expected to remain in service for 25 years.
Image provided courtesy of the Republic of China Navy
However, the process hit an obstacle last month, when only two small firms, Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co and Lung Teh Shipbuilding Co, participated in the bid for construction of the Swift Sea prototypes. China Shipbuilding Corp, Taiwan (CSBC), the nation’s largest shipbuilder, did not participate in the March 26 bid, causing it to fail, the Chinese-language Asia-Pacific Defense Magazine reported in its latest issue.
A CSBC official said the firm decided not to participate in the bid because several technological requirements for the project had yet to be confirmed by the ministry.
Once those issues have been cleared up, CSBC will participate in the bid, the official said, adding that the company was very keen on winning the contract.
The corvettes will come equipped with eight Hsiung Feng II (HF-2) and Hsiung Feng III (HF-3) anti-ship missiles, as well as a 76mm rapid-fire bow gun. The catamaran-style design, reports said, may have been inspired by the 220-tonne Houbei-class Type 022 catamaran recently deployed by China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
Analysts are saying the central cross-linked structure of the Swift Sea corvette will provide high stability, adding that its 30 knot (55.5kph) speed will also be an asset. Special attention has reportedly been paid to the stealth design for the hull and main gun turret, which will use radar refractive materials
The program is seen as the logical follow-up to the development of the Kuang Hua VI (KH-6) fast-attack boats in service in the navy since 2010. In all, 31 of the CSBC-made, 170-tonne KH-6s, divided into three squadrons and which carry four HF-2s each, are active in the navy. Earlier this year, critics of the small attack craft said its light displacement and top-heavy design undermined its stability at sea, especially during unfavorable weather conditions.
James Holmes of the US Naval War College told the Taipei Times at the time that the KH-6 was probably only a transitional platform until something better was introduced.
Amid growing focus on the indigenous development of weapons systems, Taiwan appears to be slowly emphasizing an asymmetrical approach to countering the Chinese military, with less reliance on heavy — and expensive — platforms and more on speed, stealth and evasiveness, analysts say.
Taiwanese defense analysts say the principal role of the new corvettes in coastal defense will be to target any carrier battle group deployed by the PLAN in nearby waters.
China’s first aircraft carrier, the refurbished former Soviet Varyag, is expected to enter service in August this year. Two or three additional carriers are expected to be built by Chinese shipyards by 2020.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching