The navy is exploring an underwater acoustic monitoring system in the Taiwan Strait as part of an early-warning system against submarines from China.
The project, to be jointly operated by Taiwan and the US, carries an estimated cost of NT$300 billion, a military leader has divulged.
The military leader, a high-ranking naval official, made the remarks at a recent address to the media.
The US is to share with Taiwan the development costs of the project, which would serve the interests of both countries.
The underwater acoustic-monitoring system will link up with two similar systems that the US operates in waters north and south of Taiwan and that are within the territorial waters of Japan and the Philippines.
It is expected to form a seamless early-warning mechanism capable of monitoring the entire Chinese coastline.
The navy has yet to decide whether to embark on the project due to the extremely high cost, the military leader said.
One other consideration is whether the navy wants to share all information it gathers from the system with the US.
"It is like making all our national secrets accessible to the US. It will not be a problem as long as we are still friends. Who knows what will happen in the future?" the military leader said.
Another naval official, who spoke on the same occasion, said the project has been in the planning stages for several years and that specialists with the Kaohsiung-based National Sun Yat-sen University have conducted research into the project's feasibility.
Experts speculate that the navy confirmed the existence of the highly-sensitive project because there is some concern that warmer relations between the US and China threaten the initiative.
An army official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, cast further doubt on the project.
"The underwater acoustic-monitoring system that the navy plans to build is basically a Cold War relic. It is a primitive anti-submarine early-warning system. It is comprised mainly of cables," the official said.
"By current standards, this kind of system is outdated. It is hard to imagine that the navy is trying to introduce it," the official said.
"If the navy really wants to build a system of this kind, it has to have its own plans for the deployment of the system, rather than following advice from the US. What Taiwan needs is an underwater acoustic-monitoring system that can cover the entire coast, not just the western coastline," he said.
"An around-the-island system can warn against submarines not only from China but also from other countries. The navy certainly has to re-think its plans for the deployment of this system."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat