The navy plans to rent a dock in Kaohsiung harbor to accommodate part of the four Kidd-class destroyers it plans to buy from the US, defense sources said yesterday.
The dock-rental plan is expected to save operational costs because it is relatively cheap to rent a dock in Kaohsiung harbor on a long-term basis, the sources said.
However, the navy has not given up its initial plan to build a new dock in Kaohsiung's Tsoying military port for the Kidds.
The dock-construction project will take several years, prompting the navy to consider renting a dock in Kaohsiung harbor before the dock in the Tsoying military port can be completed.
By the time the docking facilities in Tsoying are completed, the four Kidds will have two places to stop in the Kaohsiung area.
The navy is currently working on the details of the dock-rental plan since the first two of the four Kidds are expected to be delivered to Taiwan in late 2004 or early 2005.
The Kaohsiung harbor has suitable sites for the navy to dock the Kidds because many berths have a water depth of over 10.5m, a basic requirement for the Kidds. Most of these sites are located in the deep-water section of the harbor.
The navy owns a dock in the harbor, but it is only large enough for one Kidd warship at a time. The dock, called "Hsinpin," is the place where ships from Singapore's navy stay when arriving for a visit or training mission.
Besides the Kaohsiung harbor, the navy has chosen the northeastern Suao harbor as the another major base for the Kidds.
The Suao harbor, now home to the Knox-class frigates, has some problems. The harbor is well known for its "tricky design," requiring greater attention from ship crews when moving in and out of the harbor.
A naval official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the design means that the harbor was structured in a way that would confuse naval captains.
"The harbor was designed by the Japanese. We really do not know whether we should thank or curse the Japanese for the design," the official said.
Another problem with the Suao harbor is that it does not have sufficient logistics facilities for larger-sized warships like the Kidd, the official said. The Kaohsiung harbor, by contrast, does not have this problem.
"The structure of the [Suao] harbor is not very good, either. Not enough attention was given when, over 10 years ago, the harbor added new facilities to accommodate newer warships like the Knox," he said.
With docking places in both the eastern and western parts of the island, the Kidds are expected to have greater flexibility in deployment and the greater endurance against potential enemy attacks.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
RSS