17th December 2020 - 00:56 GMT | by Gordon Arthur in Christchurch RSS
Taiwan s indigenous shipbuilding programme bears fruit with new corvette, OPV and minelayer classes progressing.
Taiwan launched the Republic of China Navy’s (ROCN) first improved
Tuo Chiang-class guided missile corvette in the northeast port city of Suao in Yilan County on 14 December.
The launch ceremony for ROCS
Ta Chiang (pennant number 619), built by Lung Teh Shipbuilding, was attended by President Tsai .
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In an editorial published on Wednesday, Chinese Communist Party newspaper
Global Times said Taiwan s new fleet of Tuo Chiang-class guided-missile corvettes would be potential targets for the People s Liberation Army Z-9 helicopter.
The island nation s latest domestically produced corvette was unveiled at the Lungteh shipyard in eastern Taiwan the day before. The ceremony was attended by President Tsai Ing-wen, who named the prototype Ta Chiang.
The heavily armed corvettes will come equipped with an array of missiles and anti-surface weaponry. Military analysts say the fleet will be a key component of Taiwan s coastal defense, capable of effective hit-and-run tactics against the PLA Navy.
Taiwan launches first improved Tuo Chiang-class fast missile corvette
15 December 2020
by Gabriel Dominguez
Taiwan’s Lungteh Shipbuilding has launched the first improved variant of the Tuo Chiang (also spelled Tuo Jiang) class of fast missile corvettes for the Republic of China Navy (RoCN).
Named
Ta Chiang (pennant number 619), the vessel entered the water in a ceremony held on 15 December at the company’s facility in Suao, southern Yilan County, that was presided over by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
Taiwan’s Lungteh Shipbuilding launched on 15 December Ta Chiang, the first improved Tuo Chiang-class fast missile corvette on order for the RoCN. (Via Tsai Ing-wen’s Twitter account)
Navy plans to build three more missile corvettes by 2023
12/16/2020 05:27 PM
CNA file photo
Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) Taiwan s Navy has decided to build three more of the upgraded version of its Tuo Chiang-class missile corvette by 2023 amid a growing military threat from Beijing.
Vice Defense Minister Chang Che-ping (張哲平) said during a legislative hearing that the Armed Forces originally planned to build three upgraded Tuo Chiang-class missile corvettes by 2025.
The first one the Ta Chiang (塔江) was launched in a ceremony in Yilan on Tuesday presided over by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
But due to the increasing military threat from China, the military asked the project s main contractor, Lung Teh Shipbuilding, to build the remaining two corvettes on order more quickly and produce more of the ships in a short amount of time, according to Chang.
Taiwan military launches new corvette, ‘target of PLA aircraft’
By Liu Xuanzun Source: Global Times Published: 2020/12/16 20:51:55
A Z-9 attack helicopter attached to a naval aviation regiment under the PLA Eastern Theater Command hovers over the parking apron during a real-combat flight training exercise in late September, 2020. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Li Hengjiang)
The island of Taiwan launched its first heavily armed Tuo Chiang-class corvette on Tuesday, with Taiwan media calling it an aircraft carrier killer, but Chinese mainland military experts said on Wednesday that the corvette s threat to the People s Liberation Army (PLA) is limited and will only become a target of PLA aircraft.