The navy yesterday said that it has commissioned a Dutch company to assist in a program to upgrade its two submarines bought from the Netherlands in the 1980s, but stressed that the program is not related to one aimed at having Taiwan build its own submarines.
The statement was made in response to a report yesterday by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that RH Marine of the Netherlands had been commissioned to carry out system integration as part of the upgrade program for the two Chien Lung-class submarines.
“This will also be helpful for the program to build home-grown submarines,” the article said.
The navy confirmed in the statement that RH Marine is to assist in the integration of platform and electromechanical systems under the retrofit program for the two aging submarines, but it stressed that the Dutch company’s participation in the upgrade program “is unrelated to the domestic submarine program.”
The navy said CSBC Corp, Taiwan is responsible for the design of the vessels for the nation’s indigenous submarine program.
The program is being carried out according to schedule, it added.
CSBC Co and the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology in March signed a memorandum of understanding with the navy to jointly build submarines.
The memoradum divides the project into a design phase and a construction phase, CSBC said.
According to the schedule, the domestically built submarines are to be completed in eight years and should be formally commissioned into service within a decade, CSBC has said.
The navy has four submarines in its fleet: two bought from the US in the 1970s and the two from the Netherlands, bought in the 1980s.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS