The Coast Guard Administration has released a NT$918 million (US$33.17 million) plan to upgrade and replace radar and surveillance systems on the east coast, in the south and on outlying islands.
The agency said in a three-year budget plan submitted to the Legislative Yuan that it would add 11 new radar systems and replace 22 aging ones in Kaohsiung; in Hualien, Taitung, Pingtung and Penghu counties; and on the Matsu, Pratas (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), Spratly (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and Orchid (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) islands.
The agency said it plans to purchase two radar systems with a range of 24 nautical miles (44.45km), three vehicle-mounted systems, five fill-in radars, six electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) systems, and one coastal radar station, it said.
Photo provided by the Water Resources via CNA
The systems with a range of 24 nautical miles, which are to be installed in Pingtung County and on Orchid Island, would extend the coast guard’s detection range to Taiwan’s contiguous zone, a band of water extending beyond the outer edge of its territorial sea, in the southeast and southwest, it said.
The fill-in radars and EO/IR systems would eliminate radar dead zones, the agency said.
The vehicle-mounted systems, with their built-in EO/IR capabilities, would act as a mobile reserve for coast guard units in Hualien County and on the Pratas and Spratly islands, it added.
Upgrades and replacements have been phased in for its 78 radar stations, the agency said, adding that the budget plan would provide funding for the radars in Hualien, Taitung, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as on the Matsu, Pratas and Spratly islands.
The upgrades would enable the coast guard to detect vessels 12 nautical miles out to sea, while the planned coastal radar station would enable it to detect incursions by Chinese fishing boats south of Penghu County, it said.
Asked for comment, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that radar systems are a necessary expenditure that would help curb smuggling and human trafficking, as well as China’s saber-rattling.
The coast guard should enhance Taiwan’s maritime border security and identify any gaps in its capabilities that need to be fixed, he said.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the agency’s plans would reduce dead zones in Taiwan’s radar coverage.
The proposed acquisitions would be particularly useful to curb illegal dredging in the shallows near the median line of the Taiwan Strait and to deter hybridized warfare against the Pratas Islands, he added.
However, the agency should consider using drones for surveillance and reconnaissance, and establish its own aviation units if necessary, Su said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching