The government is planning on using a locally developed missile shield rather than buying the US-made Patriot weaponry to defend the central and southern part of the nation against attacks from China, it was reported yesterday.
The low-altitude anti-missile system, called ATBM (anti-tactical ballistic missile) by the researchers of the military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, is scheduled to be put into service in 2005, the Liberty Times said.
This system, rather than the US Patriot III weaponry now being tested, would be installed to defend central and southern Taiwan, the paper said.
"That's why the Patriot weaponry was not on the arms shopping list Taipei presented Washington this year," an unnamed military officer was quoted by the report as saying.
Washington has remained the largest arms supplier to Taiwan despite its switching of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
The paper said the tests of Patriot III suggested it could be reliable, but that it might take a long time to be integrated into the nation's missile shield.
The government has installed three batteries of PAC-II Plus missiles, the improved version of the first Patriot, to defend the densely populated greater Taipei area.
But the hostility in 1996, during which China's People's Liberation Army lobbed ballistic missiles into shipping lanes off Taiwan, prompted the government to seek a more advanced missile shield including the purchase of the Patriot III and the development of its own version.
Changshan's ATBM scored an initial success when a missile hit a targeted drone during a test in September 1999.
Chungshan official Chao Yao-ming had said ATBM, which updated the locally developed Tienkung (Sky Bow) air defense system, was guided by phased array radars like those installed on US AEGIS-class destroyer.
The indigenous weaponry targeted M-9 and M-11 ballistic missiles, which form part of China's arms inventory, as well as a new missile program reportedly similar to the US Tomahawk.
The government earlier had announced the ATBM program as part of a "national missile defense" project, and that Chungshan would play a key role in the project.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
RSS