Taiwan's Republic of China Navy (RoCN) began sea trials of an indigenously designed twin-hull missile corvette dubbed a 'carrier killer' on 27 October, according to naval sources as cited by local media.
The 500-tonne vessel, Tuo Jiang (618), is said to have been towed from Lung Teh Shipbuilding's facilities in Yilan county to waters south of Guishan Island, where it conducted engine trials at various speeds.
Tuo Jiang 's wave-piercing catamaran hull form enables it to attain a maximum speed of 38 kt and a standard range of 2,000 n miles. The 60 m by 14 m corvette features a low radar cross-section (RCS) design and can accommodate a crew of 41.
Besides carrying eight Hsiung Feng II (HF-2) and eight ramjet-powered Hsiung Feng III (HF-3) anti-ship missiles, Tuo Jiang is also reported to be armed with an Otobreda 76 mm gun, four 12.7 mm machine guns for close-range ship defence and a Mk 15 Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS) to defeat incoming projectiles and hostile aircraft.
Upon completion of its sea trials, the corvette will be fitted with anti-ship missile systems and is expected to be put on a nine-month tactical testing phase by the RoCN. Tuo Jiang is scheduled to enter service in the first half of 2015.
COMMENT
In 2011, the Taiwanese government approved a TWD24.98 billion (USD820 million) budget to acquire up to 12 new missile corvettes under the Ministry of National Defense's (MND's) Hsun Hai (Swift Sea) programme. Hsun Hai was established after legislators argued that the country could not continue to rely on large ships such as the RoCN's Keelung (Kidd)-class destroyers.
The 1970s-era warships, displacing almost 10,000 tonnes at full load, are said to be unsuitable for defending the Taiwan Strait in light of new weapons and swifter naval platforms being acquired by China.
Analysts argue that the move to smaller, faster missile-armed craft would provide Taiwan with an asymmetric edge during a possible invasion by the mainland. In a 2012 paper titled 'Asymmetric Options for Taiwan's Defense' the US Naval War College's Professor William Murray argued that platforms such as the Tuo Jiang class would survive Chinese attacks "by virtue of mobility, redundancy, hardening, deception, and large inventories made possibly by low relative costs".
The HF-3 anti-ship missile, which will equip the Tuo Jiang class, is one such system that, in Murray's words, could "offset much of China's force modernisation by rendering specific classes of PRC ships and aircraft vulnerable". Such capabilities have a number of strategic effects, such as providing a form of deterrence by raising the risk of an invasion, allowing Taiwan to resist such an invasion for longer, and giving the United States time to marshall its forces in support of the island.
