By Prashanth Parameswaran
The defense ministry seeks financing to expand the country’s submarine fleet.
Taiwan’s defense ministry has submitted a budget proposal to the country’s legislature for an indigenous submarine project, local media sources reported August 31.
Taiwan has long sought to expand its aging submarine fleet. Taipei currently only has four submarines – two World War II-era U.S. Guppy-class boats and two other Dutch-built Hai-Lung class submarines commissioned in the late 1980s. For perspective, China currently operates more than 60 submarines and is rapidly expanding its anti-submarine warfare capabilities to further dilute any threat Taipei’s future submarines could pose.
In that vein, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) has reportedly proposed a NT$2.9 billion (US$89 million) budget to the Legislative Yuan to help get a program to build new submarines – the so-called Indigenous Defense Submarine (IDS) program – off the ground. The Navy is planning to award a design contract in 2016, with a budget of NT500 million for the first year of the project. The entire project is expected to span four years. The MND’s proposed budget also includes a separate plan to upgrade the electronic warfare system of the two Hai-Lung submarines at a total estimated cost of NT$290 million, spread over four years from 2016 to 2019 and with NT$90 million for the first year.
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