National Sun Yat-sen University and CSBC Corp, Taiwan have been working to develop and build a search-and-rescue submersible, a research team said yesterday.
The submersible, which is being developed by the university’s Institute of Undersea Technology, is equipped with the institute’s fiber-optic instrumentation towed system and locally built sonar systems, the institute said.
Its development team, led by Wang Chua-chin (王朝欽), said that the first variant of the dual-seat submersible completed an 8m underwater test in Kaohsiung Harbor on July 15.
Photo: Robert Huang, Taipei Times
“We plan to test the submersible in Tainan’s Anping Harbor (安平漁港) and the harbor in Pingtung County’s Liouciou (琉球) next year,” Wang said, adding that the vehicle would undergo underwater pressure testing at a depth of 20m.
Ultimately, the vehicle would have a maximum operating depth of 3,000m, the institute said.
National Applied Research Laboratories’ Taiwan Ocean Research Institute Director Wang Chao-chang (王兆璋) said that the nation has always had the capability of manufacturing underwater equipment.
Following a failed bid in 2013 to rent foreign equipment for research and development purposes, funding was diverted to local research and development efforts under the Taiwan National Energy Program, Wang Chao-chang said.
The prototype weighs 3.7 tonnes and cost NT$3 million (US$105,237), the institute said, adding that the project started in 2018, when then-CSBC vice president Han Yu-lin (韓育霖) donated the vehicle’s hull and part of its internal equipment.
The institute was part of a search and rescue operation off the coast of Hualien County last month looking for the wreckage of a crashed F-16 jet. The images the institute captured 1,000m underwater helped the air force locate the wreckage.
The jet had gone missing on Nov. 17 two minutes after taking off from Hualien Air Force Base for a nighttime training exercise. Colonel Chiang Cheng-chih (蔣正志) died in the crash.
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