Sat, Apr 23, 2022 page1

• Taiwan details new missile and drone capabilities

  • By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard / Reuters, TAIPEI
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  Taiwan is developing missiles that can attack enemy air bases and bring down cruise missiles, and drones that can target their firing locations, a report by the military-owned body making the weapons said.

  Taiwan last year approved NT$240 billion (US$8.2 billion) in extra military spending over the next five years as tensions with China have hit a new high and Chinese military planes have repeatedly flown through Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.

  Taiwan plans to more than double its annual missile production capacity to close to 500 this year, the Ministry of National Defense said last month, as it boosts its combat power.

  

  A Tien Kong (Sky Bow) surface-to-air missile is displayed at an exhibition in Taipei on Feb. 26, 2017.

  Photo: Lo Tien-pin, Taipei Times

  In a report to the Legislative Yuan this week, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology offered more details of what the missiles and drones it is developing could do in a war.

  The Hsiung Sheng land-attack missile, which experts say could have a range of up to 1,000km, comes in two versions: one with a high-explosive warhead to hit bunkers and hardened command centers, and the other with “dispersal” munitions to take out airfield facilities, it said.

  Chieh Chung (揭仲), a researcher at the Taipei-based National Policy Foundation, said the Hsiung Sheng could reach most bases under the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command, including those near Shanghai and the province of Zhejiang.

  “It could greatly boost the national army’s capacity to delay or paralyze the communist forces’ pace of an invasion of Taiwan, making it hard for them to achieve a rapid war,” he said.

  The advanced Sky Bow III surface-to-air missile is designed to take down ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as fighter jets.

  Taiwan’s plans predate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the war has prompted conversations about the lessons Taiwan could apply to fighting off a Chinese attack, including how Ukraine has resisted a numerically superior force.

  One Taiwan-based Western security source said that although Taiwan was getting gear such as Harpoon anti-ship missiles from the US, its own missile program would help ensure the country would not have to rely on foreign supplies, as Ukraine has.

  “It’s a hedging strategy,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

  The institute said that drones, which Ukraine has used to great effect against Russia’s military, could attack enemy missile launch sites or act as decoys to help pinpoint enemy radars.

  Four new facilities, including bases and repair plants, would be built by 2025 for the new drones, it said.

  The ministry has previously announced plans to start manufacturing unspecified “attack drones,” with an annual production target of 48 such aircraft.

  Little has been disclosed about the domestically produced drones. The first batch of US-made MQ-9 Reaper drones, which can be armed with missiles and operate at long range, is to enter service by 2025, the ministry said last month.

  About 64 percent of Taiwan’s extra military spending, which came on top of planned military spending of NT$471.7 billion for next year, is to be spent on anti-ship weapons, such as land-based missile systems, including a NT$148.9 billion plan to mass produce homegrown missiles and “high-performance” ships.
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