Taiwanese shipbuilder CSBC Corp has missed the deadline for completing Taiwan’s first domestic submarine, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday.
The vessel is the lead boat of a program launched in 2016 that aims to deliver eight vessels, but opposition lawmakers have criticized the repeated delays in the project.
Taiwan is seeking to upgrade its defenses to deter China, which has threatened to use force to annex it.
Photo courtesy of CSBC Corp, Taiwan via CNA
Sea trials of the Hai Kun (海鯤), or “Narwhal,” began in June, nearly two years after it was first unveiled.
The original target was to wrap up testing by September 30 and deliver the submarine by the end of last month, the navy said previously. Koo yesterday said that sea trials are ongoing.
“All the sea trials were supposed to be completed by the end of November, but in fact that is no longer achievable,” Koo told lawmakers. “I want to emphasize again that everything we do is based on safety assessments and there’s no rush to meet any specific month.”
A spokesperson for CSBC confirmed the delay.
The submarine program has been plagued by obstacles.
Koo in October said that the original timeline for construction had been unrealistic.
“In practice, we face many difficulties, especially given our own circumstances, including equipment issues and delays in scheduling the manufacturers’ technical personnel,” Koo said.
The submarine measures 80m in length, has a displacement weight of about 2,300 to 2,700 tonnes, and boasts combat systems and torpedoes sourced from the US defense company Lockheed Martin.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party, which together control the legislature, froze part of the program’s budget earlier this year.
The parties said they wanted to see the results of the submarine’s sea trials before releasing the funds.
Taiwan’s navy has two submarines in active commission, Swordfish-class vessels bought from the Netherlands in the 1980s.
Over the same period, China has built itself one of the world’s largest fleets, with nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.
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