The nation is hoping to build its first homegrown submarines within eight years and commission them into service within a decade, the shipbuilder tasked with carrying out the program said yesterday.
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) chairman Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文隆) said there were problems that needed to be worked out because Taiwan lacks experience in building submarines, but added that the difficulties were being addressed.
CSBC, the nation’s only listed shipbuilder, has built more than 100 ships for the navy and will use that experience in developing the local submarine program, he added.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
Cheng’s comments came as CSBC and the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the navy earlier yesterday in Kaohsiung to jointly build submarines for the military.
The project is part of a broader initiative to develop an independent national defense industry.
The project will have two main phases, the MOU said.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
The first will be to complete the design for the submarines and will have a budget of about NT$2 billion (US$65.66 million), Cheng said.
The second stage will involve building the submarines, he said, without giving any cost projections for the vessels or estimates of how many submarines would be built.
According to the schedule, the indigenous submarines are to be completed within eight years and then commissioned into service within a decade, he said.
Cheng was asked about the planned submarines’ design and whether it would be based on the designs of existing submarines in the navy’s fleet, which were purchased from the US in the 1970s and the Netherlands in the 1980s.
“The design will be based on a model that meets the needs of Taiwan’s self-defense,” he said.
Institute vice president Gao Chung-hsing (杲中興) said that the most important part of the program is building a system that integrates all equipment and ensures the safety of ships operating underwater.
The institute will cooperate with CSBC in these areas, Gao said.
Yesterday’s signing was also witnessed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who said the construction of submarines is the most challenging aspect of the nation’s policy to create an independent national defense industry.
The government will exhaust all means and pool its resources to solve any problems associated with building the submarines, she said.
Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) also attended the signing ceremony, which was preceded by the formal send-off of a fleet of navy vessels on a training mission that will include goodwill visits to some of the nation’s diplomatic allies.
During the ceremony, Tsai boarded the Hai Lung-class submarine the Hai Hu in Zuoying Military Harbor to watch a simulation of a torpedo launch.
Taiwan has long tried to acquire submarines from other countries with little success because of their reluctance to upset China.
In 2001, then-US president George W. Bush authorized the sale of eight diesel-electric submarines to Taiwan, but the deal never came to fruition because of political wrangling in Taiwan and questions over whether the US, which did not produce conventional submarines at the time, could supply the vessels.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS