A local university has completed the installation of a world-class test facility for large-scale models of surface ships and submarines, which the university says could be of much help to the navy.
The test facility, called the Large Cavitation Tunnel (LCT), is the third largest of its kind in the world. Completed earlier this year, it sits in the Keelung-based National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU). It cost nearly NT$400 million to build and took more than three years to complete.
The university made a detailed introduction to the functions and capabilities of the LCT on Wednesday at the Tenth National Conference on Naval Ship Engineering hosted by the Chung-Cheng Institute of Technology of the military.
Dr. Ke Yung-tse (
"Commercial ship designs do not need to be tested in the LCT. Only military ships will need tests in the LCT, since they must not produce much noise while in operation," Ke said.
The LCT tests are aimed at finding out -- using a one-tenth scale model of a surface ship or submarine design -- the noise level which would be produced by the vessel's propeller or the vortex which would be caused by the hull design of the vessel.
"If the navy is not interested in using the university's LCT for the design of a submarine, it could consider applying it to find out the noise levels or other relevant facts about surface ships already in service," Ke said.
"The domestically-built Cheng Kung-class frigate, for instance, has been short of such data since the design phase. It is really necessary for the navy to start building a data bank for the Cheng Kung-class frigate regarding facts such as the noises that the ship produces during operation," he said.
The university's installation of a world-class LCT marks part of the efforts being made by academic institutions to comply with the government's policy of developing a self-reliant defense industry.
Besides NTOU, the National Taiwan University and National Chen Kung University have also built similar but lower-end test facilities, which the navy could use in its ship-building efforts.
But these efforts might not be appreciated by defense contractors, who prefer to buy mature technologies from abroad rather than domestically-developed ones that need to take time to become reliable.
The state-run China Shipbuilding Corp. (CSBC), which has been bidding to participate in the construction of part of the eight diesel-powered submarines that the US has promised to get for Taiwan, does not think the university's LCT will be of any help to its submarine building project.
A spokesman for the CSBC said the company does not want to start from scratch, since it does not have much time.
"We are now trying to import existing submarine designs from abroad so as to be able to get into the business as early as possible," the company spokesman said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and