The government plans to upgrade Kaohsiung’s Zuoying (左營) naval base to enable the servicing of large warships and to augment its operational capabilities, a Ministry of National Defense official said yesterday.
The strategically important base needs to enhance its capability to service more and bigger ships, including 10,000-tonne warships that are to be built as part of the nation’s shipbuilding program, and those of allied navies, the official said.
The expansion, named the Weihai Project (威海), has a budget of NT$34.5 billion (US$1.13 billion) under the defense allowance of the government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, the official said.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
The expanded base is to have a second pier and a second harbor entrance-exit point on its north side, with requisite berths and shore-side facilities, the official said.
Due to its reliance on a single entrance-exit point, the Zuoying naval base is considered vulnerable to blockade and attack.
In a war, the navy would have to dock its warships for supply and maintenance one at a time to avoid having too many vessels remaining stationary and vulnerable, the official said.
Adding another exit-entrance point and expanding base facilities would enhance fleet survivability and operational efficiency by shortening the time required to assemble naval forces for combat, the official said.
The estimated completion date for the second pier and harbor entrance-exit point is 2025, the official said.
Plans for maintenance and administration facilities and barracks are being drawn up by private consultants, with plans expected to be complete by the end of the year, the official said.
The navy has submitted the expansion’s basic layout to the Executive Yuan’s Public Construction Commission, and environmental impact studies have been filed to the Environmental Protection Administration, the official said.
As development projects for coastal areas must be authorized by the Ministry of the Interior, the permit request would be sent to its Construction and Planning Agency for evaluation, the official said.
The US Congress is expected to authorize the US Navy to make port of call stops in Taiwan, following the US Senate Armed Services Committee’s resolution earlier last month backing US naval visits to the nation.
The news triggered speculation in Taiwan as to which port would be selected by the navy to receive US warships, with Port of Kaohsiung officials last week saying that it is technically suited for the task.
However, the Ministry of National Defense statement suggests that officials favor the Zuoying naval base and not the civilian harbor to its south.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS