Taiwan building own Aegis fleet to take on China: report

Taiwan intends to build its own fleet of warships and frigates equipped with the powerful Aegis Combat System over the next 15 years, reports Hong Kong-magazine Yazhou Zhoukan.

The fleet, which will be developed domestically, will include four 6,000-tonne Aegis-equipped warships and another 10-15 2,000-tonne Aegis-equipped guided missile frigates, the report said.

The project, which was initially abandoned back in 1995, has reportedly been reactivated due to lower costs and concerns over the the significant improvements made to the People's Liberation Army Navy, including the introduction of its own aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, as well as larger, heavier and more powerful vessels. As a result, the ROC Navy is said to be determined to be become more flexible and make strides in speed, technology, stealth capabilities, missile launch capabilities and reconnaisance speed.


According to the report, the ROC Navy invested US$100 million with the United States around 20 years ago to develop a frigate similar to Spain's F-100 class, and another US$300 million to jointly develop the Aegis Combat System, now produced by American defense company Lockheed Martin. But Taiwan decided to suspend the project in 1995 following repeated calls from the US side to increase the investment, though several vessel designs are reportedly still in the hands of the Taiwanese government.

Taiwan began reconsidering the project after Spain commissioned its F-100 class frigate and received orders from Australia and Norway. Taiwan's National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology also experienced success in phased array radar-based combat system integration tests and secured breakthroughs in procuring vertical missile launching systems from the US.

The current plan is to use the old blueprints to commence building the four 6,000-tonne Aegis ships by 2020. The Tuo River class or Hsun Hai-class corvette, currently udnergoing sea trials and is expected to be deployed in the first half of 2015, is also said to be one of the 10-15 2,000-tonne frigates under the project.