Taiwan's Home-Grown Submarine to Cost Less
Taiwan's shipbuilder CSBC Corp's chairman Cheng Wen-lon said that a home-grown submarine will cost less than NT$100 billion (US$3.29 billion) to build.
According to a report in Taipei Times, chairman of the local shipbuilder commissioned to plan and design the vessel also said that much depends on the Navy’s demands: Planned crew sizes, mission length and strategic and tactical requirements would all determine the eventual size of the submarine.
Nationally developed ships would be crucial to the company’s future operations, Cheng said, pledging to place the company’s best personnel on the program.
Eariler, all attempts by Taipei to buy a conventional submarine from other countries have been thwarted by a litany of threats from China. Beijing takes a hard line at any country that supplies arms to what they consider their own territory.
So, the President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan had no choice but to build its own submarine fleet as she promoted a deal to deploy the first vessel in less than a decade.
Tsai touted the contract with CSBC Corp., as a necessary step to improve the island’s defenses.
The company plans to deliver the first diesel-electric model in 2024, with deployment expected a year or two later.
The Taiwanese Navy has a requirement to replace two inoperable World War II-era Guppy-class attack submarines as well as the life extension program for its two Dutch-built Sea Dragon-class (Zwaardvis Mk 2) submarines built during the early 1980s.
