Taiwan showed off its first submarine made in its own country on Thursday. The leader of the island, a democracy, said this is a big achievement. Taiwan wants to strengthen its military power because it feels that Beijing is becoming more and more of a danger.
President Tsai Ing-wen led a ceremony at the shipyard in Kaohsiung city for a new submarine. They officially named the submarine “Narwhal” in English and “Hai Kun” in Mandarin, which means “sea monster”.
Tsai said that the submarine is an important way for us to protect our country. “It is also an important tool for our naval forces to create unique combat strategies. ”
In the past, a lot of people believed that creating a submarine that belongs to our own country would be really hard to do. “But we succeeded,” she included.
The ceremony was an important and special moment for Tsai. She started an important defense plan to build Taiwan’s first submarine soon after becoming president in 2016.
Taiwan’s defense leaders want the submarines to make it more difficult for China to invade the island. China says Taiwan is part of its territory and has been acting more aggressively in recent years.
Reporters were shown around the place where the submarine is built, but they couldn’t take detailed pictures for safety reasons.
During the ceremony, information about the ship’s size or ability was not shared. Sandra Oudkirk, who represents Washington in Taiwan, was present along with representatives from the Japanese and South Korean missions in Taipei.
Tsai said that building submarines for the indigenous submarine project is very important to her administration.
By 2025, Taiwan will have three submarines. Currently, it has two submarines that were made in the Netherlands and started operating in the 1980s. The new submarine is called “Narwhal”.
Taiwan said they want to make eight submarines by themselves.
China’s Defense Ministry compared the new submarine to a mantis trying to stop a chariot, using a well-known Chinese saying.
Taiwan’s military is getting ready in case China decides to attack. This phrase can be rewritten as: Understand how.
Protecting the group of islands closest to the mainland.
During a meeting that CNN attended last week, Admiral Huang Shu-kuang, who advises Taiwan’s National Security Council and is in charge of the indigenous submarine project, explained that the new fleet of submarines will be crucial in stopping Beijing from blocking Taiwan’s ships by sea.
The Taiwan Strait is not deep enough for submarines, but they can still be very helpful in attacking Chinese warships in the Bashi channel and the waters between Taiwan and Japan’s westernmost islands.
China’s ability to reach the Pacific Ocean is restricted by a series of islands that include Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. To get into the larger ocean, China’s navy would have to go through these important areas.
So Huang said that Taiwan can stop China from showing off its military power by placing its submarines there.
If there is a war, the Chinese navy wants to go to the east of Taiwan to surround and control us, and to make it hard for the US to help.
Submarines can go really deep underwater and are difficult to find, so they have a good opportunity to get close to Chinese aircraft carriers and attack them.
The statement was made by Collin Koh, who is a senior fellow at the S. The Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore stated that the new submarine fleet will make Taiwan more capable of launching a second attack if necessary.
The person said that China is very concerned about the possibility of the US getting involved militarily, so they are preparing for a big naval battle with the US near the Philippine Sea, away from the islands closest to China.
He said that if the people of Taiwan want to help, one way to do that is to keep the PLA Navy trapped within the first island chain. This will prevent them from coming out and assisting the US military intervention, making it more likely to succeed.
Admiral Huang also mentioned that the submarines can carry torpedoes made in the US, called MK-48, which can be used to attack ships on the surface.
Taiwan has been focusing more on making its own weapons and not depending as much on buying them from other countries. They want to update their military and be able to defend themselves without relying on other countries.
Tsai became the leader of Taiwan when the country was having difficulties convincing the United States and European countries to sell them expensive military equipment.
In recent years, Beijing has been putting more pressure on Taipei and the United States. This includes diplomatic, economic, and military actions. The United States, under both President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump, has approved many big military sales.
But Taiwan’s own military buying plan continues to be an important part of its defense strategy, especially when it comes to weapons like anti-ship missiles that could protect against a possible attack.
In March, CNN went to see a company in Taiwan that makes weapons for the military. The company showed off five new types of drones that they built, which can watch and attack from the air.
Taiwan has successfully built its first submarine. This is important because it could help ease worries about Taiwan’s military readiness, especially as China tries to claim its territory. Taiwan is a democratic island with 23. 5 million people
The Communist Party in China sees Taiwan as their territory, even though they have never governed it. Beijing has always stated that they want to merge the island with mainland China, even if they have to use force. However, the Taiwanese government strongly disagrees with China’s claims to the island.
During Xi Jinping’s leadership, China has increased pressure on Taiwan.
In the past few years, Chinese fighter planes, bombers, and surveillance planes have been flying more and more around the island. Chinese warships have also been crossing the unofficial boundary line in the Taiwan Strait more often.
Last year, China’s military organized big exercises to show their disagreement with a trip that Nancy Pelosi, who was then the House Speaker, made to Taiwan.
During a meeting, Admiral Huang mentioned that Taiwan tried to create a new group of submarines when former president Lee Teng-hui started a special team in 1995. However, they had trouble because the US didn’t want to sell submarines to Taiwan.
The project officially started in 2016, when Tsai became the leader.
He explained that there were many difficulties in making Taiwan’s first submarine because there wasn’t enough money, there were delays because there weren’t enough computer chips available worldwide, and they were worried about China spying on them.
The project had 1,003 people from Taiwan working on it. Most of them helped create the submarine’s design, explained Huang. All the employees were being watched by the military security team to make sure that no secrets were revealed.
Huang mentioned that he was given a budget of $1. 54 billion (NT$4936 billion) to construct the initial ship. Around 60% of the money was used to buy things from other countries and military gear, but he thought that number would go down in the future as Taiwan’s own submarine building industry gets better.
He didn’t want to say which countries gave permission for Taiwan to export things. But he did say that he talked to important military leaders in the US Pacific Fleet, Japan, South Korea, and India.
Once the submarine was revealed, it will go into trials in the ocean next month before it starts working next year.