ANALYSIS – In the face of constant Chinese military threats, and attack drills, Taiwan is planning to deploy at least two new, domestically developed submarines by 2027 to strengthen its ability to sink Chinese warships and protect key supply lines.
The Taiwanese submarines rely heavily on the U.S. and other Western technology, likely including from the UK, Japan, South Korea and even India. They will also be armed initially with 18 U.S.-made MK-48 Mod 6 heavyweight torpedoes.
The Republic of China (ROC, aka Taiwan) would then launch another six subs after that, and possibly equip later models with anti-ship missiles, such as U.S.-made Harpoons.
Harpoons can be fired through a boat’s torpedo tubes. Taiwan already filed a version of the Harpoon, and the US Navy awarded a $1.17 billion contract for Harpoon Block 2 missiles in April.
Taiwan News reported in April that the island nation would be launching its prototype submarine in September, and some sources report it will be unveiled on Thursday. It will then commence sea trials in October.
Delivery of the first boat to the Taiwanese navy should be in late 2024.
Taiwanese admiral Huang Shu-kuang, who is leading the program, said a fleet of 10 submarines – which includes two Dutch-made submarines commissioned in the 1980s – will make it harder for the Chinese navy to project power into the Pacific.
As Breaking Defense reported, this is a very big deal:
“They’ve managed to do it. That’s the key takeaway,” Euan Graham, China export at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said of Taiwan building its first submarine. “And they did it against very strong political headwinds that apparently affected the supply of equipment. This is impressive.”
The prototype submarine is reported to be 230 feet long, 26 feet wide and almost 60 feet high and have a displacement of between 2,500 and 3,000 tons. It will also have a pair of stabilizing fins on the sides of the streamlined conning tower and an X-shaped tail rudder.
Taiwan, which though self-governed, China claims as its own territory, has made the home-built sub program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces against the mushrooming China invasion or blockade threat.
And this has been no easy feat. Breaking Defense explained:
Building a sub, one of the highest technology ventures in which a military can engage, faced hurdles since so many countries do not have formal diplomatic relations with the island entity. Getting export permits — always a time-consuming challenge — was much more difficult than usual. Efforts by Taiwan to obtain subs from the US had foundered twice before, during the administrations of George Bush and Barack Obama.
Breaking Defense added that when negotiating with wary allies, Huang provided a convincing rationale for South Korea and Japan to help Taiwan with the subs. He briefed them that the fleet of Taiwanese subs could force China to stay inside the first island chain.
“This was also the strategic concept of the U.S. military — to contain them within the first island chain and deny their access,” Huang said. “If Taiwan is taken, Japan will definitely not be safe, South Korea will definitely not be safe.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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For WW3
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To few and too late. These countries are not serious.
To be fair, direct and treasonous US actions that helped the CCP to gain power must have come as a shock to them the past 40 years.
Who is their enemy???
The CCP, Wall Street, The US ☭hamber Of ☭ommerce and ☭orporate Ameri☭a bribed ☭ongress to write the laws that made it legal to screw over America and allow the greatest transfer of jobs, wealth and intellectual property in modern history to an avowed enemy, Communist China, making them the threat they are today. Greed trumps national security concerns!
☭ongress and ☭orporate America are the real enemy!