Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) yesterday confirmed plans to bring forward the nation’s construction of 11 Tuo Jiang-class corvettes by completing them in two instead of three phases.
Yen made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in response to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng’s (羅致政) question about whether the military is making adjustments to counter the Chinese threat.
The corvette is a crucial piece of the military’s asymmetric warfare and shortening its construction schedule would increase the nation’s combat capability, Yen said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The ministry purchased 12 corvettes in total, with the first ship delivered in 2014, it said.
The other 11 corvettes are to come in two types: The first three anti-aircraft models are to be completed by 2025, while five anti-ship models, which were originally scheduled to be completed between 2030 and 2032, are to be brought forward to 2025, the ministry said.
The completion of the third batch, originally planned for 2039, could be moved forward as the need arises, it said.
The armaments of the third batch, whilst unknown, could include the extended range versions of the Hsiung Feng II (HF-II) anti-ship missiles and the HF-III missiles, which offer more effective deterrence against enemy vessels, the ministry said.
With a displacement of 700 tonnes, the anti-air variants are to be armed with ship-launched Tien Chien II missiles, while the anti-ship variant are to carry HF-II anti-ship missiles and HF-III supersonic anti-ship missiles, the ministry said.
The ministry has opted to contract the construction of the surface platforms via an open bid, but would commission the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to design and install the combat systems onboard, the ministry said.
The commission agreement and the public bid are to begin next month and should be completed by October, it said.
Navy Command Headquarters Chief of Staff of the Navy Vice Admiral Lee Tsung-hsiao (李宗孝) told lawmakers he is confident that the open bid would conclude successfully and that construction could begin next year.
Construction of the second batch will not necessarily have to wait for the completion of the first batch, Lee said, adding that it could begin as soon as next year or in 2020.
Yen also told the committee that the national defense budget would surely increase more than 2 percent for fiscal 2019.
The ministry will comply with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) instructions on increasing the national defense budget as a percentage of GDP by no less than 2 percent of the previous year’s budget, the ministry’s Comptroller Bureau Director Chen Kuo-sheng (陳國勝) said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the