Taiwan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Taiwan's main weapons research and development unit released a video and several photos of the test launch of its Hsiung Feng III missile for the first time on December 2nd. The HF-3 missile is seen launched from a land based test platform as well as from a ROC Navy (Republic of China - Taiwan) Cheng Kung-class frigate.

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shen said:

They had plan to build air defense version of Cheng Kung-class frigate back in the 1990's, supposedly equipped with mini-Aegis system. But that's a 4000t design.

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The first lot of four Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters the Republic of China Army (RoC Army; Taiwan) bought from the US was delivered to the port of Kaohsiung on 4 December 2014. The assembling and flight testing were started upon arrival, with the first machine airborne hours after making it to its new home.

The first UH-60M helicopter (No. 903) was craned from the cargo ship at 10:00 in the morning. After being checked by the related technicians with equipment receiving plan and standard operating procedure, it was then transported to the assembly area to be assembled. It was tested and flight-tested in the afternoon. The UH-60Ms fly to Guiren Air Force Base in Tainan for training.

All 60 helicopters that Taiwan has ordered are expected to be in the country by 2018 and are the successors of the legendary UH-1H “Huey”. Fifteen aircraft will fly for the Ministry of Interior.

The Black Hawks are the second large rotary wing order for Taiwan in a short time. In October the final batch of 30 AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters was delivered.

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FORBIN said:

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The ROC Navy (Republic of China - Taiwan) released a video showing its first catamaran corvette "Tuo River" conducting trials at sea. The sea trials started in September 2014. According to ROC Navy officials, the corvette already demonstrated its ability to reach the required top speed of 38 knots during the ongoing sea trials.

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Skywatcher said:

Not to mention that the Mistrals aren't going to last very long in a shooting war, unless they get parked on the east coast of Taiwan.

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Joseph Wu, the secretary-general of Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, expressed to officials in Washington a proposal by the party's chairwoman, Tsai Ing-wen, to establish the Taiwan-held island of Taiping in the South China Sea as a humanitarian rescue base, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

After the DPP made significant gains in locals elections last weekend, Wu, a former ROC envoy to the US, was sent to Washington to give a briefing on the party's cross-strait policy. In addition to promising to establish a more mature relationship with Beijing, Wu said at the press conference held at Washington on Dec. 4 that Taiwan is ready to cooperate with all nations that claim the disputed Spratly islands — including China — if the DPP returns to power in 2016.

Wu said that Tsai Ing-wen hopes to make Taiping or Itu Aba, the largest island in the Spratlys, into an international rescue base instead of a military base for the Republic of China and that she wants the defense ministry to focus more on humanitarian missions than military operations in the future. In the National Defense Blue Paper published by the DPP, Tsai suggests Taiwan build a 10,000-ton hospital ship to operate out of Taiping to carry out humanitarian missions.

Tsai believes that in this way Taiwan can make Taiping a humanitarian platform in East Asia. She said the proposed hospital ship would not be put under the command of the ROC Navy or any other military authority and could provide assistance and relief to the nationals of any country operating in the region. If fishing boats from China or any other nation required assistance, the ship would be on standby to help, she said.

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Zetageist said:

Looks like Mistral-class ship does have some use for Taiwan in SCS as a hospital ship:

Taiping should be a rescue base in South China Sea: Tsai

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