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.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
RSS