US technical assistance would help Taiwan upgrade its indigenous missile systems and could provide key technologies needed to develop a vertical launch system for warships, a defense official said on condition of anonymity.
Commenting on the Taiwan-US cooperative agreement in defense-related research, the official said that US technical assistance is expected to speed up the nation’s ongoing efforts to upgrade the Hsiung Feng, Tien Chien and Tien Kung families of missiles.
Moreover, US know-how could facilitate the military’s program to develop a vertical launch system for the navy’s planned next-generation frigate and the principal surface warfare combatant, which has struck a technical bottleneck, the official said.
Although US officials have suggested directly selling vertical launch systems, Taiwanese officials have expressed a preference to obtain the necessary technologies and develop a system locally through visits to US research facilities and joint research programs, the official said.
The Hsiung Feng family of missiles is Taiwan’s most important means of defense against the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s large warships and the nation’s main strategic deterrent, the official said.
The military fields three variants of Hsiung Feng missiles: the Hsiung Feng II subsonic anti-ship missile, the Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missile and the Hsiung Feng IIE land attack cruise missile, the official said.
While the military is confident in the missiles’ ability to strike Chinese ships and installations, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology believes that it is both desirable and practicable to improve their effective range and precision, the official said.
The Tien Kung III surface-to-air missile is mainly used as an anti-aircraft weapon, but can also be used as a missile defense interceptor, the official said.
However, the missiles’ top operational altitude is deemed insufficient and the institute is focusing on boosting the maximum altitude of effective interception for its next round of upgrades, the official said.
The Tien Chien II air-to-air missile has met all of the military’s operational requirements and it is the main anti-fighter armament of Indigenous Defense Fighter jets, which are undergoing upgrades to carry more Tien Chien missiles, the official said.
The navy has adopted the naval variant of the Tien Chien II missile for use on all new Tuo Jiang-class corvettes slated for production, while the land-based variant has been fully tested and can be fielded, should the army decide to adopt the weapon, the official said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods