Two Perry-class guided-missile frigates purchased from the US arrived in Kaohsiung yesterday, an acquisition that the Republic of China (ROC) Navy said will increase its anti-submarine capability.
Flying ROC national flags, the vessels, crewed by Taiwanese, sailed into Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at about 9:30am, where a welcoming ceremony was held by the military.
A commissioning ceremony is slated for July next year, according to military sources.
Photo: CNA
The ships — which were cheaper than Taiwanese-made Cheng Kung-class frigates, the design of which is based on Perry-class frigates — were built in the 1980s.
The navy renamed them Ming Chuan No. 1112 and Feng Chia No. 1115.
They are to join the navy’s 146th fleet based on the outlying island of Penghu, from where they are to patrol the Taiwan Strait, the sources said.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Perry-class frigates have high mobility and are equipped with the SQQ-89 undersea warfare combat system and the SQR-19 sonar system, both of which the military said would beef up its anti-submarine capabilities.
Then-US president Barack Obama signed a bill into law in December 2014 that authorized the sale of four Perry-class frigates to Taiwan.
Taipei budgeted about NT$5.5 billion (US$182 million at today’s exchange rate) in 2014 to purchase two of the ships, which were formerly named the USS Taylor (EFG-50) and the USS Gary (EFG-51) of the US Navy.
Admiral Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光), commander of the ROC Navy, and family members of the crew were at the port to welcome the ships as they docked.
An official who declined to be named said the navy had been working with its US counterpart since May last year to bring the ships to Taiwan, adding that the crew underwent 10 months of tests and training with the US military.
The frigates are to be fitted with new equipment, while officers will be trained with the new ships before they are added into the naval force, the official said.
“Maintaining security and unimpeded passage in the waters around Taiwan is the navy’s greatest responsibility. We hope we will continue to have support in making arms purchases to ensure we can undertake this responsibility,” the sources said.
The numbering of the frigates — 1112 and 1115 — follows a convention in which the last two numbers of a ship’s name cannot add up to four, nor can the last digit be a four, the official said.
Case of all the digits adding up to four are also not used.
Four in Chinese has a similar pronunciation to the Chinese word for “die” (si, 死).
“The idea is that we hope officers will not be distracted by what might be perceived as an ominous ship name,” the official said, adding that as the previous Cheng Kung-class vessel to be added to the fleet was No. 1110, and 1111 adds up to four, the new ships were numbered starting from 1112.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS