A 2,000 tonne patrol ship built by the nation’s largest private shipbuilder under a consignment contract with the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was launched from a shipyard in Kaohsiung Harbor yesterday.
The ship, christened the Tainan, is the largest patrol ship the CGA has ordered.
The ship is 98.5m long, 13.2m at its widest and has a draft of 7.6m, with a maximum speed of 24 knots and a cruising range of more than 7,500 nautical miles (13,900km), said the builder, Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Co.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-I, TAIPEI TIMES
Addressing the launch ceremony, CGA Minister Wang Ginn-wang (王進旺) said the Tainan would substantially increase the CGA’s patrol capabilities and strength.
The CGA has ordered other large patrol ships and the next one, to be completed next year, will be christened Xinbei — the name to be given to Taipei County following its upgrade to a municipal city next year.
Jong Shyn Shipbuilding chairman Han Pi-hsiang (韓碧祥) said the company had received a contract from the CGA to build patrol boats for more than a decade, a deal that includes more than 20 ships with deadweights between 50 tonnes and 2,000 tonnes.
The Tainan can weather inclement conditions and accommodate 68 coast guard personnel for high-sea operations for a month, Han said.
It also has a helicopter landing platform on its main deck, he said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS