TAIPEI听–听罢补颈飞补苍听hopes to听诲别辫濒辞测听at least听迟飞辞听new, domestically developed听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听by听2027, and possibly equip later models with missiles, to strengthen deterrence against the Chinese navy and protect key supply lines, the head of the program said.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has made the indigenous sub program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily 聽to assert its sovereignty.
President Tsai Ing-wen, who initiated the program when she took office in 2016, is expected to launch the first of eight听苍别飞听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听on Thursday under a plan聽that has drawn on expertise and technology from several countries – a breakthrough for diplomatically isolated听罢补颈飞补苍.
Admiral Huang Shu-kuang, Tsai’s听蝉别肠耻谤颈迟测听adviser, who is leading the program, said a fleet of 10听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听– which includes听迟飞辞听Dutch-made听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听commissioned in the 1980s – will make it harder for the Chinese navy to project power into the Pacific.
“If we can build up this combat capacity, I don’t think we will lose a war,” Mr. Huang this month told an internal briefing on the project, which was attended by Reuters.
Mr. Huang said the first submarine, with a price tag of T$49.36 billion ($1.54 billion), will use a combat system by Lockheed Martin Corp. and carry US-made MK-48 heavyweight torpedoes. It will enter sea trials next month before delivery to the navy by the end of 2024.
For subsequent models,聽罢补颈飞补苍听will leave space for聽submarine-launched anti-ship missiles,聽but adding those weapons depends on production availability in a US, where capacity was already tight, Huang said, without naming the companies that might be involved.
He called the听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听a “strategic deterrent” to Chinese warships crossing the Miyako Strait near southwestern Japan or the Bashi Channel that separates聽罢补颈飞补苍听from the Philippines.
Mr. Huang said听罢补颈飞补苍‘s diesel-electric听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听can keep China at bay within the first island chain, referring to the area that runs from Japan through听罢补颈飞补苍, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China’s coastal seas.
“This was also the strategic concept of the US military – to contain them within the first island chain and deny their access,” Mr. Huang said. “If聽罢补颈飞补苍听is taken, Japan will definitely not be safe, South Korea will definitely not be safe.”
China’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The Chinese navy, including its Shandong aircraft carrier, has become increasingly active in recent months off听罢补颈飞补苍‘s eastern coastline, prompting worries that China could launch an attack from that direction. Eastern聽罢补颈飞补苍听is where planners have long envisioned the island’s military聽regrouping and preserving its forces during a conflict.
Mr. Huang said the听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听can help maintain the island’s “lifeline” to the Pacific by keeping ports along听罢补颈飞补苍‘s eastern coast open for supplies in a conflict.
“The听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听will keep their ships away from our eastern shores,” he said.
Chieh Chung, a military researcher at听罢补颈飞补苍‘s National Policy Foundation think tank, said the fleet would have trouble with that task, because China could position warships in the Pacific before launching an attack.
But he added that the听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉听could occupy strategic ambush points in the region and “greatly harm (China’s) combat ability” by targeting high-value ships such as carrier groups or landing fleets.
‘GREAT HELP’
罢补颈飞补苍听has quietly sourced technology, components and talent from at least seven nations to help it build听蝉耻产尘补谤颈苍别蝉, a聽聽has found.
Getting foreign assistance was particularly challenging for听罢补颈飞补苍, which doesn’t have official ties with most countries.
Mr. Huang declined to say which countries had approved export permits, but said he had reached out to generals from countries that included the United States, Japan, South Korea and India.
“For those foreign generals who agreed with my ideas, they helped convey the message to their governments or arrange meetings,” he said. “I told them our needs and that’s how we achieved our purpose of securing export permits.”
Mr. Huang also expressed thanks for the “great help” from a team led by an unnamed retired rear admiral of Britain’s Royal Navy, who secured export permits from Britain through a Gibraltar-based company.
Britain sharply increased the amount of submarine parts and technology exports approved last year for听罢补颈飞补苍, a Reuters analysis of the聽听蝉丑辞飞别诲.
Mr. Huang described the program as “even harder than reaching the sky,” pointing to challenges such as a global chip shortage that hit many manufacturers around the world. He said his team scrambled to source chips from聽罢补颈飞补苍听to avoid delays by foreign vendors.
A foreign supplier had also pull out at the last minute after the work with聽罢补颈飞补苍听was leaked to a Chinese embassy, he said, without elaborating.
He said China’s frequent military harassment, including close approaches to听罢补颈飞补苍‘s territorial waters and airspace, has prompted聽罢补颈飞补苍听and the United States to rethink the island’s “asymmetrical” strategy of making its forces more mobile and harder to attack, with a focus on smaller weapons systems.
“The American thinking is changing gradually. They realized that you can’t withstand (the harassment)聽without bigger boats,” Huang said,聽pointing to the navy’s plan to build a听苍别飞听generation of bigger frigates.
“They are getting closer and closer,” he added, referring to China. “罢补颈飞补苍听can’t drive them out with small boats. We must use bigger boats.” – Reuters
