Domestically developed Land Sword II (陸射劍二) missiles were successfully launched and hit target drones during a live-fire exercise at the Jiupeng Military Base in Pingtung County yesterday.
The missiles, developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST), were originally scheduled to launch on Tuesday last week, after the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday long weekend, but were postponed to yesterday due to weather conditions.
Local residents and military enthusiasts gathered outside the base to watch the missile tests, with the first one launching at 9:10am.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
The Land Sword II system, which is derived from the Sky Sword II (天劍二) series, was turned over to the army in May last year to replace its MIM-72A/M48 Chaparral surface-to-air missile system.
Three missiles were launched during the live-fire training.
A Ministry of National Defense report submitted to the Legislative Yuan last month showed that the army has leased target drones from the institute.
Starting this year, the Land Sword II missiles would be test-fired once each year, including the firing of three missiles and one target pursuit, the report said.
The Sky Sword system consists of an engagement control vehicle, a CSIST-developed Bee Eye radar system, a launch vehicle and an ammunition carrier, with an effective range of up to 15km, it said.
With the system, the vehicle crew can perform a 360o search, tracking and monitoring within the detection range, it said.
The system can detect enemy fixed-wing aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft, uncrewed vehicles and cruise missiles, and it can also be integrated with active Avenger missiles and twin-mounted Stinger missiles to bolster regional air defense capabilities, it said.
In other news, 11 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension in the 24-hour period starting at 6am on Sunday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
Eight of the aircraft crossed the median line, while three crossed the extension and entered Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
Both groups consisted of an unspecified number of fighter jets and drones, flight paths and information released by the ministry showed.
Some of the aircraft flew as close as 41 nautical miles (76km) from the northern city of Keelung, the information showed.
In total, 18 PLA aircraft were detected in Taiwan’s ADIZ during the same period, while six PLA Navy vessels were also found to be operating in waters around the country, the defense ministry said.
The ministry said it deployed combat air patrol aircraft, navy vessels and coastal missile defense systems in response.
The ministry has stopped its practice of identifying the types of PLA aircraft detected in Taiwan’s ADIZ since Jan. 16.
Considering the changing security situation and threats, identifying the types of PLA aircraft could play into the hands of China, which could exploit this information to wage cognitive warfare campaigns against the Taiwanese public, military spokesman Major General Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said at the time.
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
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
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
RSS