The US is to deliver High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Taiwan a year ahead of schedule, in 2026, with the delivery being expedited in response to rising military tensions across the Strait, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Taiwan agreed to buy 29 HIMARS worth NT$32.5 billion (US$1.06 billion), including an initial order of 11 systems and an additional 18 to replace 40 M109A6 self-propelled howitzers, Lee Shih-Chiang (李世強), director of the ministry’s Department of Strategic Planning, told lawmakers on Thursday.
The first 11 systems are on sechedule, to be delivered next year or in 2025, while the additional 18 are to arrive in 2026, ahead of the planned 2027 or 2028 delivery, Lee said.
Photo: AP
The army’s procurement of rocket artillery systems and ammunition additionally includes 84 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMs) with a nominal range of 300km and 864 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS), with a nominal effective range of 42km, he said.
Separately, retired admiral Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光), convener of the Presidential Office’s indigenous submarine task force, said yesterday that the nation is on track to put the first indigenous submarine to sea in September.
He made the remark at a National Taiwan Ocean University event discussing the nation’s shipbuilding programs.
Submarines are crucial for Taiwanese security, as the nation’s geostrategic position on the first island chain is better suited for a defensive posture based on submarine warfare than strength-on-strength surface action, Huang said.
The nation’s security strategy should involve improving the capability of the armed forces and banding with other democratic nations to form a defensive alliance in the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
Taiwan began efforts to obtain submarines under former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) administration, but the first attempts were unsuccessful due to diplomatic constraints, Huang said.
The indigenous defense submarine program was proposed near the end of former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term and continued by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), he said.
Precision strike missiles, submarines, undersea vessels, missile-firing boats, and mines and minelayers must be developed to defend the maritime logistical lifelines the nation depends on for gas and strategic resources, Huang said.
The university is at the forefront of the nation’s bid to develop AI-based autonomous uncrewed undersea vessels, and a prototype has successfully completed an one-hour undersea voyage, university president Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said.
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
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
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
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
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