More than 1,000 domestically produced missiles are expected to be delivered next year and a production plan would be adjusted according to the nation’s needs, defense sources said on Saturday.
The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) is manufacturing the missiles as part of its Sea-Air Combat Power Improvement Plan.
The plan has been allocated a special budget of NT$228.9 billion (US$7.4 billion) from last year to 2026, with this year’s budget being the highest at NT$60.9 billion, one of the sources said.
Photo: EPA-EFE / the Ministry of National Defense
Last year’s budget was NT$46.3 billion, while the budget would be NT$47.4 billion next year, NT$45.8 billion in 2025 and NT$28.3 in 2026, the source said.
The allocation is expected to result in the largest delivery of missiles next year to address developments in the Taiwan Strait, they said.
This year’s missile production is estimated to be close to 1,000, the source said.
The overall spending plan includes two phases of mobile coastal-defense cruise missiles, an air-defense system, an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) system, the Wan Chien air-to-ground missile system, the Hsiung Feng II-E (HF-2E) land attack cruise missile system, and two phases of high-performance naval vessels, as well as weapons systems for coast guard vessels, the source said.
The manufacture of the Wan Chien air-to-ground missile system is to be completed next year, while the UAV and the HF-2E missile systems would be ready in 2025, the source said.
Asked whether the government would unveil a second purchase package or raise the annual defense budget to boost weapons manufacturing, a high-ranking official said on condition of anonymity that the government would follow the most suitable plan based on its predictions of how the cross-strait situation would develop.
With the delivery of sea and air missiles, the military would gradually adjust its air-defense, anti-ship and naval units, while retiring old missile systems, the official said.
Countries such as the US, Japan and China are paying attention to the combat power of Taiwan’s missile forces, they said, adding that the military would unveil the outcomes of its improvement plan soon.
In other developments, a source close to the military yesterday said that the army is customizing reconnaissance drones made by the CSIST to give them combat capabilities.
Some of the UAVs have been equipped with a laser targeting system that can lock on to targets and transmit the coordinates to a military base, the source said.
Others would be equipped with weapons systems to give them the capability to retaliate against possible to attacks while on reconnaissance missions, the source said.
The drones being refitted are among the 50 rotor-based models ordered from the CSIST for NT$779.98 million. Fourteen were delivered last year and 36 this year.
The UAV was unveiled at a military demonstration in January. The army at the time said soldiers need only two weeks of training to operate the drones, with refresher courses scheduled every two years.
The drone is 180cm long, 39cm wide and 55.7cm high. It has a top speed of 64kph and can climb to 1,500m.
Weighing 25kg, it can withstand level 6 winds on the Beaufort Wind Scale and can fly for 60 minutes on a single charge.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS