Taiwan has its eyes set on deploying at least four domestically made submarines by 2027, Admiral Huang Shu-kuang, security adviser to the island’s leader, told a briefing, according to the Central News Agency.
The naming and launching ceremony for the first of these is set for 28 September at Taiwan Shipbuilding's Kaohsiung factory.
The ambitious project - part of an overall drive to modernize the island's armed forces amid an alleged "threat from China" which is being hyped up by Washington, presupposes potentially equipping later models with missiles, the program's leader was cited by media reports as saying.
Boasting a price tag of T$49.4Bln ($1.54Bln), the prototype of the first Taiwan-made submarine will be launched on 28 September, followed by a port-berth test (HAT) on 1 October, and sea trials (SAT) later in October. The sub is expected to be delivered to Taiwan’s navy by the end of 2024. The diesel-electric submarine will employ a combat system made by Lockheed Martin Corp and US-made MK-48 heavyweight torpedoes, according to Huang, chief of the general staff and convener of the Indigenous Defense Submarine (IDS) program.
The domestic sub program was first conceived by President Tsai Ing-wen after she took office in 2016. Taiwan’s leader is expected to launch the first of eight new submarines on Thursday. After seven more subs are built the island will have a fleet of 10, including the existing two Dutch-made submarines commissioned in the Eighties.
Regarding the technology and components for the domestically built submarines, Huang declined to reveal which countries had approved export permits to Taiwan, which is officially recognized by only 13 countries. However, he was cited as giving credit to generals from countries such as the United States, India, South Korea, and Japan, saying:
"For those foreign generals who agreed with my ideas, they helped convey the message to their governments or arrange meetings… I told them our needs and that's how we achieved our purpose of securing export permits."
Furthermore, according to Huang, "great help" had come from an expert team led by a retired Rear Admiral of the UK's Royal Navy. The person, whose identity was not revealed, ostensibly aided Taiwan in securing export permits from Britain through a company based in Gibraltar, according to media reports.
"If we can build up this combat capacity, I don't think we will lose a war," Huang was cited as telling an internal briefing in September. According to him, the country's domestically built submarines are crucial as a "strategic deterrent" to Chinese warships crossing the Miyako Strait near south-western Japan or the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines.
China's defense ministry has not yet commented on the subject of Taiwan making its own submarines.
This comes as tensions over Taiwan between Beijing and Washington have worsened in recent years. In early August 2022, then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, which was decried by China as a gesture of support for separatism. At the time, Beijing, in a retaliatory move, held large-scale military exercises near the island. This April, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, with China launching massive three-day military drills near the island in what it called a "warning" to Taipei and foreign powers. The US also often sends its warships and surveillance planes to the Taiwan Strait, with Beijing slamming such missions as provocations and dubbing Washington "a creator of security risks in the region."