The military yesterday conducted its first live-firing of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) purchased from the US, as the nation upgrades its capabilities to repel a potential Chinese attack.
The US is Taiwan’s most important arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties.
Taiwan has faced increased military pressure from China, including several rounds of war games, as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims over the nation.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Taiwan has bought 29 of Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS, with the first batch of 11 received last year and the rest set to arrive by next year.
The truck-mounted units can launch multiple precision-guided rockets and have been used by Ukraine against Russia in their ongoing conflict.
With a range of about 300km, they could hit coastal targets in China’s Fujian Province, on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, in the event of a conflict.
Reporters watched yesterday as the army launched rockets from the HIMARS at Jiupeng base in Pingtung County.
Colonel Ho Chih-chung (何至中) told reporters that US technical personnel were present during the live-fire drill and helped to resolve a “signal error” during the first round when three launchers failed to fire simultaneously.
“We believe this exercise provides an opportunity to enhance our troubleshooting capabilities, allowing us to better demonstrate realistic combat readiness in the event of war,” Ho said.
Chinese-language Asia-Pacific Defense magazine editor-in-chief Cheng Chi-wen (鄭繼文), a military expert who attended the drill, said that HIMARS has gained international prestige during the Russia-Ukraine war.
Its overall performance is better than the locally made Thunderbolt-2000 multiple launch rocket system, as the GPS-aided navigation system provides HIMARS with powerful and precise attack capabilities, he said.
Given the HIMARS’ superior performance, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology would be advised to unify its ammunition with that of the Thunderbolt-2000, Cheng said.
It would help the army map out a stronger asymmetric warfare strategy, if HIMARS’ GPS-aided navigation technology can be applied to locally made weapons’ fire control systems to facilitate information sharing between both systems, he said.
Yesterday’s test came a day after Taiwan said it had detected another “joint combat readiness patrol” by China’s military near Taiwan involving warplanes and warships.
Additional reporting by Chen Chih-cheng
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS