President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony in Keelung to inaugurate a 4,000-tonne-class coast guard ship, named the Chiayi (嘉義), while highlighting the coast guard’s cooperation with the US.
Tsai toured the Chiayi at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台船) shipyard and attended the christening of its sister vessel, the Hsinchu (新竹), both commissioned by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA).
Tsai said that the delivery of the Chiayi and the production of sister ships bolsters the coast guard’s capabilities and offers greater protection for CGA staff.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
The Chiayi and the launch of the navy’s Yu Shan (玉山) amphibious transport dock two weeks ago in Kaohsiung are proof that the government’s indigenous shipbuilding projects and increased national defense autonomy is on track, Tsai said.
Last month, Taiwan and the US signed a memorandum of understanding for the nations’ coast guards to collaborate in preserving maritime resources; reducing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; and allowing for joint maritime search-and-rescue missions, as well as environmental response events, she said.
Although a 4,000-tonne-class vessel, the Chiayi has almost 5,044 tonnes of displacement, and could sail for 10,000 nautical miles (18,520km) before needing to refuel, CSBC president Cheng Wen-lon (鄭文隆) said.
Designed as a mobile seaborne field hospital, the ship is outfitted with a negative-pressure isolation ward, an operating room and other facilities that would enable it to perform humanitarian relief and search-and-rescue missions, Cheng said.
The ship also has a landing pad for rotary-wing aircraft, he added.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the ship could also be retrofitted for combat.
Based on the design of the US Coast Guard’s Legend-class National Security Cutter, the Chiayi follows the “blue-water navy” concept, meaning that it is capable of operating globally, Su said.
The vessel is close to the size of a navy ship and is equipped with 70mm rockets, 20mm cannons, a water cannon with a range of 120m and an air pad capable of launching uncrewed aerial vehicles, Su said, adding that in a conflict, it could be used against landing craft or enemy naval vessels.
The US and Japan have laws that allow coast guard ships to be retrofitted for combat, Su said.
The CGA said it remains in negotiations with CBSC to head efforts to construct ships, and handle maintenance and repairs.
Additional reporting by CNA
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS