By Shang-su Wu
The new Tuo-Jiang-class missile corvette will do little to shore up Taiwan’s defense.
The Taiwanese navy, officially the Republic of China Navy (ROCN), recently received its first Tuo Jiang-class missile corvette. However, this project may do little to shore up Taiwan’s deteriorating defense situation. Of course, the twin-hull structure, stealth appearance, and formidable firepower of 16 anti-ship missiles demonstrate the capability of Taiwan’s shipbuilding and defense industries, and provide some deterrence against the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)’s surface fleets. However, insufficient air defense capability, a highly exposed tactical environment, and the unlikely scenario of amphibious invasion may limit the strategic value of these new vessels.
First, with a 500 ton displacement, the Tuo Jiang class is not built to be equipped with extensive air defense capability, only a 76 mm gun and a Phalanx 20 mm close-in weapon system, which have limited capacity to engage approaching anti-ship missiles or aircraft, and they would need to be covered by other weapons systems, such as larger frigates and destroyers, fighters, and air defense systems onshore. However, Taiwan’s other systems may not be able to provide sufficient cover during wartime. The ROCN’s Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigates and Kidd Class destroyers can technically provide an air defense umbrella of their respective Standard I and II surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). But in the face of China’s anti-access and area denial (A2AD) strategy, comprising an array of maritime sensors such as satellites, and increasing numbers and ranges of PLAN anti-ship missiles with their platforms, the ROCN’s major surface combatants will have a more difficult job surviving saturated attacks, or may be forced to withdraw to relatively safe areas which are too distant to enable them to cover the corvettes.
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