Taiwan aims to boost its military deterrence in the face of a growing threat from Beijing
The President of Taiwan – Tsai Ing-wen, has unveiled the country’s first-ever domestically built submarine today, i.e., Thursday, September 28, 2023, to boost its military deterrence in the face of a growing threat from Beijing.
The unveiling was done at the submarine’s shipyard in Southern Kaohsiung City, where the diesel-electric vessel was officially named “Narwhal” in English and “Hai Kun” in Mandarin, which can be loosely translated as “sea monster”.
The unveiling ceremony was also attended by the United States (U.S.) de facto ambassador to Taiwan – Sandra Oudkirk, as well as the representatives from the Japanese and South Korean missions in Taipei.
Speaking on the occasion, Tsai Ing-wen said, “The submarine is an important realisation of our concrete commitment in defending our country,” Tsai said. “It is also important equipment for our naval forces in developing asymmetric warfare strategies.”
She further said, “In the past, many people thought building an indigenous submarine would be an impossible task. But we have made it.”
Taking it to X (formerly Twitter), Tsai Ing-wen tweeted,
With our first domestically produced submarine, #Taiwan has taken a substantial step in boosting self-sufficiency in defence & protecting its territorial waters. Moving forward, our defence industry will be an important support as we continue to enhance our indigenous defence. pic.twitter.com/qp2SmeqwPv
— 蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) September 28, 2023
Taiwan believes that the submarines would help to make it far harder for a potential invasion by China, which claims the island as its territory and has ramped up its sabre-rattling in recent years. With the addition of ‘Narwhal’, Taiwan will have 3 submarines by 2025. It already has two Dutch-made submarines that were first commissioned in the 1980s.
Previously, Taiwan said it plans to build 8 indigenous submarines. In an internal briefing attended by CNN last week, Admiral Huang Shu-kuang, an adviser of Taiwan’s National Security Council and a leader of the indigenous submarine project, said the new fleet would play a key role in preventing Beijing from conducting a naval blockade of the island. Admiral Huang also said the submarines are designed with the capability of carrying US-made MK-48 torpedoes, which can be used to target surface ships.
While the Taiwan Strait might be too shallow for submarines to operate in, the vessels could be most useful when deployed to target Chinese warships in the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from the Philippines, and the waters between Taiwan and Japan’s westernmost islands.
Since the first island chain limits China’s access to the Pacific Ocean – which includes Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines – its naval forces would need to pass through these two strategic points to gain access to the wider ocean.
Taiwan has increasingly emphasised a policy of defence self-sufficiency, which has seen the island ramp up its domestic weapons development to modernise its armed forces and be less reliant on overseas procurement.
