Taiwan’s outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday inaugurated two new additions to the Taiwanese navy, a pair of indigenously produced corvettes with stealth capabilities that were designed to threaten much larger ships, including aircraft carriers.
The two warships, ROCS An Chiang and ROCS Wan Chiang, are the fifth and sixth corvettes in the Tuo Chiang class to be constructed for the Taiwanese Navy by the Lung Teh Shipbuilding Company, using a design from the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology. The first-in-class ship, commissioned in 2014, was slightly smaller and less sophisticated than the subsequent production vessels.
In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen inspects the commissioning of two new navy ships in the northern Taiwan port of Suao on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)
Ships in the Tuo Chiang class use catamaran hulls and have a wave-piercing form that greatly reduces their radar signature, making them appear no larger than fishing boats to enemy vessels.
The corvettes are considerably better armed than most fishing boats, boasting both anti-air and anti-ship missiles, plus 76mm guns and the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS) – the distinctive capsule-headed automated guns that protect U.S. warships from enemy planes, drones, and missiles.
The Tuo Chiang class of corvettes was designed to coordinate closely with fixed and mobile shore defense systems, in line with Taiwan’s shift to a “coastal combat command” strategy that would make an invader fight hard for every inch of beachhead, instead of the previous assumption that much of an invading force could be intercepted at sea.
Tsai praised the outstanding quality of the new ships and the home-grown defense industry that made them possible. Lung Teh Shipbuilding was contracted to deliver five more Tuo Chiang-class corvettes after the first models demonstrated impressive performance.
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U.S. Navy / LOCAL NEWS X /TMX“With this full flight of six indigenous ships completed ahead of schedule and more on the way, Taiwan is showing that it is serious about enhancing indigenous defense and protecting its waters,” she declared.
“Over the past few years, we have firmly implemented national defense independence. The ships made by Taiwan, one by one — named, launched, and delivered — are getting faster and faster,” she said.
Tsai recalled that this month she inaugurated two domestically produced frigates, ROCS Yunlin and ROCS Taipei. These Chiayi-class 4,000-ton frigates are the largest ships in Taiwan’s Coast Guard fleet.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, on October 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
“These achievements have proven time and again Taiwan’s power to build its own ships, and our determination to protect democracy and freedom,” she said.
The Associated Press (AP) reported on Wednesday that in addition to dealing with the usual “gray zone” harassment of Taiwan by Chinese fighters and bombers, plus a few recent tense encounters involving surface vessels, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry is worried that China might actually target Tsai or her former vice president and elected successor, William Lai Ching-te, with some sort of kidnapping or assassination attempt.
“Recent Taiwanese media reports have shown satellite photos of Chinese People’s Liberation Army training grounds including mock-ups of the neighborhood surrounding Taipei’s Presidential Office Building.,” the AP noted.
