Asymmetrical warfare and groups of warships, together with land-based missiles on trucks, still constitute Taiwan’s best national defense strategy, a security analyst said yesterday.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), an associate research fellow at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, made the comments following Monday’s launch ceremony for a second Tuo Jiang-class corvette.
The navy is expected to receive delivery of the new corvette in 2025, following sea trials, with two more corvettes expected to follow.
The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) requisition of 12 Anping-class corvettes — similar to the Tuo Jiang, but with added facilities and equipment for rescue operations — are expected to be delivered by 2026, along with a prototype from the indigenous submarine program.
The coast guard on Friday received delivery of two corvettes — the first in the Anping-class series — at a ceremony in Kaohsiung.
Adopting an expansionist mindset, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy fleet received delivery of 107 surface ships between 2012 and last year, but Taiwan should reference the Swedish naval model, Su said.
The Swedish Royal Navy primarily deploys warships of 600 to 1,500 tonnes, which alongside land-based missile systems, gives it naval superiority in its region, Su said.
Taiwan could recreate this model by pairing the Tuo Jiang with patrol ships of less tonnage, as this would be more in line with Taiwan’s strategic needs and more cost effective, Su said.
The disparity in the navies of Taiwan and China, Taiwan’s limited resources, and the cost of research and development to manufacture larger vessels are all factors working against Taiwan having a “big navy,” Defence International magazine editor Chen Kuo-ming (陳國銘) said.
Israel’s 1,900-tonne Sa’ar 6 corvette and Sweden’s 600-tonne Visby-class corvette are examples of warships that Taiwan should follow, Chen said.
Newer warship designs should be highly automated and have fewer crew members, Chen added.
Separately yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense announced that the navy expects to receive delivery of four minelayer ships by the end of next year, an amphibious transport dock ship — also known as a landing platform dock — in 2022, as well as a disaster relief support ship, known only by the project name Anhai (安海), in 2023.
Without completed infrastructure and training, the expedited sale of new F-16s from the US could become a burden rather than a help, a military official said yesterday. Reuters on Thursday last week reported that Washington is looking to accelerate the delivery of 66 new F-16C/D Block 70 aircraft in response to what it sees as increasing intimidation by Beijing. Under the terms of the original US$8 billion deal signed in 2019, the US is expected to deliver a single-seater and double-seater for testing next year, then deliver the 66 new aircraft in batches of four or five from 2024 to 2026. The officials
SLIGHTS: Beijing intends to display pro-unification messages and prominently feature Taiwanese volunteers in its propaganda videos, an official said Taiwanese officials are poised to boycott next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, an official with knowledge of the matter said yesterday, citing concerns that China would slight Taiwan during the Games. This year’s Winter Olympics are scheduled to open on Friday next week amid a diplomatic boycott by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, New Zealand, the UK and the US in response to China’s human rights abuses against Uighurs in Xinjiang and crackdowns on democracy advocates in Hong Kong. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that a Cabinet-appointed task force has determined that Taiwan’s delegation would abstain from the opening and
TRACING UNDER WAY: The CECC has identified six transmission chains among 25 recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, including those linked to a restaurant and a bank The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 54 new COVID-19 infections — 44 imported and 10 local — and identified six transmission chains among local cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the imported cases are 18 who tested positive upon arrival at the airport and 26 who tested positive during quarantine. Of the local cases, seven are associated with a cluster infection at a Tasty Steak (西堤牛排) outlet in Taoyuan’s Zhongli District (中壢), one is linked to a family of four with COVID-19 reported on Monday, one is a family member of an
INCREASED COOPERATION: Part of the funding is to be used to further the aims of a Taiwan-US human resources development platform launched in 2015, a source said An increase of ￥100 million (US$878,765) to Japan’s annual foreign affairs budget is for “advancing the Japan-Taiwan relationship,” information published on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Web site showed. The ministry’s budget for last year was ￥1.7 billion; it was increased to ￥1.8 billion for this year. The ministry wrote that the additional funding was to be used for “cooperating with allies and like-minded countries to safeguard the universal values of the international community.” Regarding Taiwan specifically, the ministry said that it was “responding to an increasingly complex security and economic environment,” and that it aimed to “strengthen diplomacy and cooperation
RSS