The commander of the Taiwanese navy admitted that the “main engine and power management system” and the “Integrated Platform Management System” (IPMS) not yet completed acceptance, so this submarine still cannot submerge.
Honestly, Taiwan's domestically developed submarine program is the most confusing project I've ever seen. The two Dutch Zwaardvis-class submarines in the Taiwanese navy's fleet are already 35 years old. With little experience operating modern submarines, no experience building submarines, no technical knowledge, and no independent production capabilities, they're being cobbled domestic submarine together from scratch, importing most subsystems. Even if they manage to build it, how effective could its stealth performance be?
Within the first island chain, the only USN vessels capable of threatening the PLAN are submarines, so the PLA is doubling down its resources on ASW. Using this junky hull against an ASW network designed to handle the most powerful submarines is pretty hopeless, isn't it? Taiwan Navy officials are not even aware of this or are deliberately concealing it, defending the project by saying that "each ship built will force the other side to invest ten times more resources to respond."
And the result? Even worse, hulls with uneven surfaces and subsystems that barely function, serious corruption exists at nearly every stage.. It's all just a desperate last stand.
