Taiwan will soon have the first submarine of its own design. Yesterday, November 17, the portal navalpost.com He reported that a closed ceremony of laying the keel of a new submarine was held at the CSBC Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard in Kaohsiung.
The ceremony was closed to the press, the Taiwan Navy also did not publish any images for security reasons. The characteristics of a promising submarine also remain classified as "secret". Since submarines and modern ships do not have a keel as such, the laying ceremony means the unification of several large hull modules.
Scale model of a Taiwanese submarine
Image source: navalpost.com
Taiwan's national program for the design and construction of non-nuclear submarines is led by the National Zhongshan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) with technical assistance from the United States. The construction of submarines is managed by CSBC Taiwan Corporation. The first of the submarines is planned to be put into service by 2025. For the needs of its Navy, Taiwan intends to build eight submarines that will receive American weapons and technology.
Back in the 90s, Taiwan's Defense Ministry planned to purchase eight diesel-electric submarines from a foreign supplier. At that time, the military department was negotiating with the United States, Germany and Spain, but due to Chinese pressure, all these countries refused to supply or froze the negotiation process. To date, the Taiwanese Navy has four submarines in service: two of the Guppy type and two of the Sea Dragon type. At the same time, only two Sea Dragon-type submarines built in the 80s are suitable for military tasks, and Guppy-type submarines built in 1945 are not combat-ready and are used for training purposes.
