Two classified naval charts were reported missing when an inventory was carried out amid the decommissioning of aging Hai Ou (“Seagull”) missile boats last month, and the information they contained could put navy vessels at risk during wartime, reports said yesterday.
According to the Chinese-language United Daily News, navy officers who had custody over the documents accidentally burned one of the two missing charts while destroying other documents, but the other, which contained classified information about naval deployments in the Taiwan Strait, remains unaccounted for.
The missing chart reportedly contained hydrographic data, ship information, waterways depth, sea salt fluctuation and the locations of navy vessels and submarines in wartime.
Photo: Military News Agency
The information could leave navy vessels exposed if it were to fall in enemy hands, reports said.
Naval Command said two control officers had received demerits over the affair and added that it had turned the case to a local military court for possible prosecution. It said it had also instructed all relevant units to tighten management of confidential information.
The navy decommissioned its last 20 Hai Ou missile boats during a ceremony at the Zuoying (左營) naval base in Greater Kaohsiung on July 1. The ships, whose design was inspired by Israel’s Dvora-class patrol boats, had been in service for about three decades. Each Hai Ou — a total of 50 were deployed — came equipped with locally produced Hsiung Feng I (HF-1) anti-ship missiles.
Amid modernization efforts, three squadrons of Kuang Hua VI (KH-6) radar-evading fast-attack missile boats have entered service since 2010. Each of the 31 KH-6s is armed with the more advanced HF-2 anti-ship missile.
The embarrassment over the disappearance of the classified chart comes after the Ministry of National Defense (MND) admitted last month that it had launched an investigation into the disappearance in May of a top-secret laptop used on a KH-6 vessel.
The computer, which belonged to the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s (CSIST) — the nation’s top military research body — had been installed for a six-month period, during which the ship’s crew carried out tests of confidential communications equipment and procedures.
The Southern District Prosecutors’ Office is handling the investigation into the computer’s disappearance.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
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
RSS