President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday told sailors aboard a combat-ready warship at a major base in the Taiwan Strait that he had their backs, thanking them for safeguarding Taiwanese security.
Speaking to sailors on board the warship Cheng Ho at the Magong (馬公) base in Penghu County, Lai said the navy sets great store on working together as one.
“As commander-in-chief of the three services, I want to stress that the government will back all of you,” he said in a message broadcast throughout the ship by loudspeaker.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Cheng Ho — named after a Ming Dynasty Chinese admiral and explorer — is a Taiwan-built warship based on the design for the US Oliver Hazard Perry class of frigates.
A live RIM-66 Standard missile stood ready in its launcher at the ship’s bow as Lai spoke onboard.
Speaking to officers shortly afterward at a lunch at the base, Lai said the government was committed to further improving the weapons of the armed forces.
Penghu is also home to an important air base, from which Taiwanese air force jets regularly scramble to shadow Chinese military aircraft and warships operating around Taiwan.
Lai reviewed soldiers at an air defense facility near the air base, watching a drill with a fixed twin-mount Stinger surface-to-air missile, designed for close-in defense.
In related news, a successful subcontractor bid for a military base on Thursday laid the final piece of groundwork realizing the Ministry of National Defense’s plans for five missile bases forming a defensive perimeter extending 150km to the south, a ministry tender showed.
The project for the base in Taitung County’s Taiping Township (太平) was awarded to an undisclosed party, costing NT$1.57 billion (US$49.18 million), with construction having started last month and to continue through July 2027.
Bases are to be built in Tainan’s Sinjhong District (新中), the military port in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營), the eastern coast of Pingtung County, Pingtung County’s Pucian Township (埔墘), Taiping and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾), a source said.
The source said the first base equipped with Harpoon missiles would be in Tainan and would likely complete construction by August 2027.
The source said all the bases are expected to be completed simultaneously and would be inspected concurrently in three years.
The navy’s 400 land-launched Harpoon missiles are expected to be delivered by 2028.
The missiles are to be placed under the jurisdiction of the littoral combat command, which would be officially established in 2026 alongside an arsenal of locally developed Hsiung Feng (“Brave Wind,” 雄風) missiles.
The source said that the Harpoon missiles purchased are the RGM-84L-4 Block II (U), the most up-to-date version, and have an effective range exceeding the 148km of the Hsiung Feng missiles.
The source said that the littoral combat command, with such an arsenal of missiles and the 25 radar trucks included in the missile package, would have greater capabilities to deter the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy.
The source said the radar trucks are compatible with the navy’s surveillance and reconnaissance system, adding that the network formed by the vehicles would have one node immediately take up the workload of another in case it is attacked or otherwise taken out of commission.
Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard
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