In recent weeks, the navy has test-fired a domestically built Hsiung Feng-II anti-ship missile to find out whether the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technol-ogy, the builder of the missile, has fixed problems with the missile's seeker, according to a defense source.
The Hsiung Feng-II missile successfully hit the target, which relieved Chung Shan since the last test-firing of the missile failed because of problems with the miss-ile's seeker. The last test-firing was in April as part of the annual Hankuang No. 17 exercise.
The missile was launched on April 4 from a Yang-class destroyer off the southern coast of Taiwan. It was scheduled to hit a target ship about 40km away. The seeker of the missile did not work as it should have as it neared the target ship. The missile overshot the target and the destroyer launching the missile lost control of it.
Crew members on the destroyer worried that the missile might hit any ship that happened to be passing by. They tried to detonate the missile by remote control but without success. The missile flew 100km past its target, sank into the water and exploded by itself. The navy blamed the Chung Shan Instiute for the failure. After weeks of research, Chung Shan found that the seeker of the Hsiung Feng-II missile was badly designed.
Chung Shan also found that all of the more than 200-plus Hsiung Feng-II missiles now in service with the navy have the same problem with their seeking systems, and that they all need to be fixed. An official with Chung Shan said that the institute should be able to fix all of the Hsiung Feng-II missiles' seekers by the middle of June. Chung Shan has asked the navy to allow a second test-firing of the missile to show problems with the seeker have been fixed.
The navy agreed and arranged for a second test-firing of the missile three weeks ago off the south-ern coast of Taiwan.
But a naval official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said although Chung Shan has fixed the problems with the Hsiung Feng-II missile, the navy's top brass has lost confidence in the missile.
"The navy leadership has considered for quite some time replacing all the Hsiung Feng-II missiles on the Cheng Kung-class frigates with US-made Harpoons. But the plan has been stopped by lawmakers who support the locally built Hsiung Feng-II," the naval official said.
"Now is a good time for the navy to re-institute the plan."
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