President William Lai (賴清德) praised the progress made in Taiwan’s ongoing domestic shipbuilding project, while presiding over a keel-laying ceremony for a domestically built light frigate prototype in Kaohsiung yesterday.
Speaking at Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Co (中信造船), Lai said it took the company about a year to reach the second phase of constructing the 2,500-tonne light frigate prototype.
In November last year, then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) presided over a commencement ceremony for the anti-air light frigate prototype, Lai said.
Photo: Daniel Ceng, EPA-EFE
Yesterday marked a major milestone in the nation’s indigenous ship and aircraft construction project, Lai said.
The project, initiated during Tsai’s administration, exemplifies Taiwan’s determination to defend itself while boosting the local defense industry’s development, he added.
The prototype is the first navy vessel classified as a “Tier 2,” or second class, combat ship, he said.
Once it enters service, the vessel would be equipped with domestically built anti-ship and anti-air missiles developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the military’s top research unit, and would be responsible for patrolling seas around the nation, he said.
Laying the keel is one of several celebrated events in the life of a ship, signifying the beginning of the vessel’s construction.
Other ceremonies include launching, commissioning and decommissioning.
The anti-air light frigate prototype is one of two being built by the Kaohsiung-based Jong Shyn.
The other one is an anti-submarine prototype. Both are scheduled to be delivered to the navy by October 2026.
The navy said the vessels would patrol the Taiwan Strait, respond to situations in the “gray zone,” conduct reconnaissance and surveillance missions, escort transport ships and supplies to remote islands, secure sea lines of communication, and support training and exercises.
“Gray zone” tactics are generally defined as coercive actions that are below the threshold of war.
They can refer to Chinese aircraft flying maneuvers near Taiwan or China’s use of fishing fleets to stake out waters.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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