The Ministry of National Defense’s Special Budget for Acquisitions under the Sea-Air Combat Power Improvement Plan is expected to significantly stimulate the domestic economy, with the ministry having allotted NT$176.27 billion (US$5.45 billion) to purchase various items from domestic suppliers, the ministry’s latest report to the Legislative Yuan showed.
The report said that missile acquisition and production comprise the majority of the budget set aside to purchase domestic supplies at NT$88.82 billion, while purchases of a variety of platforms stand at NT$31.8 billion, construction efforts are estimated at NT$38.09 billion and logistics-related acquisitions at NT$17.5 billion.
The improvement plan intends to establish coastal anti-surface batteries, which call for increased production of Hsiung Feng II (Brave Wind, 雄風) and III missiles, as well as Hsiung Sheng Missile Systems which use the Hsiung Feng IIE and extended-range Hsiung Feng IIE cruise missiles.
Photo: Ministry of National Defense via AP
The improvement plan also calls for the acquisition of highly efficient ships, the acquisition of Wan Chien (Thousand Sword, 萬劍) cluster-munition missiles, Chien Hsiang (劍翔) uncrewed aerial vehicles developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, as well as ground-based surface-to-air missile (SAM) bases featuring Tien Kung III missiles (Sky Bow, 天弓) and their extended range variant, the report said.
It added that the project also aims to acquire more field-based SAMs and is looking into the possibility of arming the Coast Guard Administration during times of war.
Citing a previous report, the ministry said annual production rates for land-based and ship-based Tien Chien (Sky Sword, 天劍) missiles have risen from 40 to 150; the rate for Sky Bow missiles has doubled from 48 to 96. The rate for Hsiung Feng II and Hsiung Sheng missiles, which share a production line, has risen from 81 to 131, while the rate for Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missiles has risen from 20 to 70.
In terms of counteroffensive weapons, Wan Chien missiles are expected to see an annual production rate of 50, up from 18 currently, while the rate of production of the Jian Hsiang drone, which does not yet have an annual production rate, is expected to reach 48 per year, the report 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