A small number of the newly developed Hsiung Feng II-E cruise missiles have already been deployed around the nation, and up to 100 of the missiles will be manufactured within the next eight years, military sources said.
The missiles will be deployed in Taiwan proper as well as on its outlying islands, they said.
The locally developed Hsiung Feng II-E has a range of up to 1,000km and can be launched from land, sea or air. The range depends upon the type of engine used.
The missile had been slated to be a part of this year's National Day military display, but was pulled from the display after the US expressed strong concern.
Sources said that future production of the Hsiung Feng would be divided into two phases. The first phase will utilize turbo jet engines, giving the missiles a range of about 500km, although these missiles will be referred to by the military as belonging to the 600km class.
The second stage of the project will utilize more efficient turbo fan engines being developed by the Ministry of National Defense-affiliated Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology. In addition to increasing the range of the missiles, the engine is also expected to increase their accuracy.
However, the sources said that the whole Hsiung Feng mass production project could be put in jeopardy if the institute failed to develop a suitable turbo fan engine.
They said that while many key components needed for weapons production originate from the US, the number of components approved for export by Washington has dwindled in the past six months.
This has affected the nation's Hsiung Feng II, Hsiung Feng III and Hsiung Feng II-E missiles, as well as other advanced weapons, they said.
The Chungshan Institute is seeking to remedy the situation by working on developing weapons components domestically as well as seeking non-US sources of components from abroad, sources said.
Researchers have so far been cautiously optimistic, but it remains to be seen whether or not US components can be successfully replaced, the sources said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS