Overview of Taiwanese Navy Warships
Hello everyone. Today we are looking at the naval forces of Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China Navy, or the ROCN for short. Previously, we have covered the geopolitical issues around the Taiwan Strait, but this video will look at naval technology and the main surface units and submarines of the Taiwanese Navy. In the past, the ROCN was simply known as
the Chinese Navy, particularly in the domestic circles, but now this reference had been dropped to avoid confusing the service with the People's Liberation Army Navy of the People's Republic of China. Incidentally, I have spent about five years of my childhood close to the island's largest naval base, which is located in the southern city of Kaohsiung, in the Zuoying district. This is where most of the ROCN's largest surface combatants were based. Today, I have to admit that the ROCN is basically a shell of its former self, having been eclipsed by the PLA Navy in basically every single way, both quantity and quality. But still, there is obviously a lot of interest both around the Mainland and overseas military watchers. So, without further ado, let's take a look at the naval forces of Taiwan.
Most of the weapons and technology in the ROCN are western, particularly American, for example the standard missiles, the phalanx CIWS, the decoy launchers, and the Italian Oto Melara naval gun. But there are a few pieces of important indigenous naval technology that I want to talk about. I want to focus on two of these. They are the Sky Bow surface-to-air missiles and the Hsiung-Feng
anti-ship missiles. The Sky Bow is a series of long range air defense missiles. There are three variants and currently the Sky Bow 2 and the Sky Bow 3 are in service. Both of these uses an active radar seeker to track down the targets during the terminal phase. The Sky Bow 2 is known to be more of an anti-aircraft weapon, with limited missile interception capability. It is basically a ground-based weapon at present. The Sky bow 3 is upgraded to be much more effective at
missile interception, including the interception of cruise missiles and also some anti-ballistic missile capability. The Sky Bow 3 also increased its range from the Sky Bow 2 from 150 kilometers to 200 kilometers. The ROCN will deploy the Sky Bow 3 in its new surface combatants, as well as some existing vessels. The Hsiung-Feng is a series of long-range anti-ship missiles. They are a standard issue to most ROCN warships and even some coast guard ships. Currently, two variants are in service: they are the Hsiung-Feng 2 and the Hsiung-Feng 3. The Hsiung-Feng 2 is high subsonic, while the Hsiung-Feng 3 is supersonic. As we shall see, the ROCN places a lot of hope on
these weapons to inflict considerable damage on the PLA Navy in the event of an attack. First up, we have four of the Keelung class destroyers, the ROCN's largest surface combatants at 9800 tons. They were originally built for the Shah of Iran in the late 1970s, but following the Iranian Revolution they were put into service with the US Navy. They were sold to Taiwan in 2001, so they were pretty old warships already by the time they were acquired by Taiwan.
They are designed primarily for air defense, relying chiefly on their standard missile 2, a medium-range SAM of American origin. However, they are not AEGIS air defense warships. Their main problem is that their technology was good at the time they were built, but by this point they are very much outdated. For example, they still rely on a pair of the old Mark 26 missile launchers, instead of the more modern vertical launching system. This system of missile launches severely limits the field of fire compared to a VLS. The search radars are also very much obsolete for an air defense destroyer, having been replaced a long time ago on US Navy destroyers by the AN/SPY-1 radar. That said, they are still the largest and most capable units in the ROCN.
Next we move onto the frigates. First up, we have the Kang Ding class. They were purchased from France, based on the revolutionary French La Fayette class design. The La Fayette class is the world's first purpose-designed stealth warship. The Kang Ding class were commissioned in the late 1990s into the ROCN. There were a huge amount of controversy surrounding the purchase of the Kang Ding class. In 1998, a massive scandal broke out surrounding the purchase, which involved around 500 million dollars of bribes paid to both French and ROCN officials, to get the deal through. Several whistleblowers who had the courage to tell the truth died under
suspicious circumstances, basically assassinated I think to keep their mouth shut. The main culprit, a Taiwanese arms dealer, fled to the UK with a huge sum of ill-gotten financial assets. Anyway, back on topic. The Kang Ding class is intended primarily for anti-submarine warfare. They do have some anti-surface capabilities with the Hsiung-Feng 2 anti-ship missiles.
Their air defense capabilities are very limited currently, but they are being upgraded with the Sky Bow 3 surface-to-air missiles. The Taiwanese Navy also possesses a fleet of 8 Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates, built under license from the United States. They are known domestically as the Cheng Kung class. The original Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate was built for the US Navy with the purpose of anti-submarine warfare in mind, but the Taiwanese version was built mainly for area air defense at a medium range, so it has substantial modifications from the original design. The Taiwanese version uses the standard missile 1 mounted on a single overarm missile launcher. However, the Taiwanese Navy recognizes the limitations of the overarm missile launcher, and the guidance system of the standard missile 1, which still relies on semi-active radar homing.
So, there are plans to upgrade the Cheng Kung class to the Sky Bow 3 surface-to-air missiles, which will be housed inside vertical launch cells. That said, these are fundamentally multi-role frigates. They have two Seahawk helicopters for anti-submarine warfare, and they are armed with a mixture of the Hsiung-Feng 2 and the Hsiung-Feng 3 for anti-surface action. But, overall the
technology associated with the Cheng Kung class is very old, and the survivability of the vessel against the overwhelming firepower of the PLA Navy is no doubt very low, due in part to a lack of stealth capability. By the way, if you enjoyed our video so far, please press the 'like' button. The Republic of China Navy also fields about six of the Chi Yang class frigates. They are basically former US Navy Knox class anti-submarine escorts purchased from the United States. They were built in the early 1970s. These are basically outdated and essentially obsolete anti-submarine warships. They have weak air defense and they have no substantial anti-surface capabilities to speak of.
So, judging by all modern standards, these are basically no longer considered a real warship and are at best just a patrol ship intended for low intensity duties. The Chi Yang class are being slowly phased out. One area the Taiwanese Navy is sorely lacking is underwater warfare. The ROCN has only two modern submarines at present. The most capable class is the so-called Sea Dragon class.
They are purchased from Holland and are based on a Dutch submarine design from the 1970s, which is itself based on the US Barbel class from the 1960s. Taiwan originally wanted to buy more of these submarines from Holland, but the Dutch government refused to sell more following diplomatic protests from Mainland China. The Sea Dragon class is essentially a basic diesel boat. It has a teardrop hull to improve hydrodynamics and some basic noise reduction features, like shock absorbers for the engines. The submarine uses both torpedoes and the submarine-launched version of the harpoon anti-ship missiles. Overall, the Sea Dragon class is probably of a decent capability, but they are too few in numbers to really challenge the PLA Navy's submarine forces. Taiwan also has the dubious honour of possessing the world's oldest active submarines. The ROCN maintains two of the old US Tench class submarines first built in World
War Two. The two boats in Taiwanese service were literally built during World War Two, and actually saw action against Imperial Japan in the later stages of the war. They were transferred from the US Navy to the ROCN in the 1970s. The two Tench class submarines are used exclusively for training purposes, to prepare sailors to serve on more modern submarines. But, according to the Taiwanese military, both of these boats are supposedly still combat-ready, despite being almost 80 years old. They are expected to remain in service until 2026. Taiwan is also building eight new indigenously designed submarines to replace its current fleet of aging submarines. They will be conventionally powered diesel boats of around two and a half
thousand tons. A team of Japanese engineers from Mitsubishi and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are believed to have provided technical support. Taiwan's indigenous submarines will incorporate certain features found on Japanese diesel boats, for example the x-form rudder and possibly lithium-ion batteries. The first boat is expected to be launched in September 2023 and possibly commissioned in 2025. If there is enough interest in the Taiwanese indigenous submarine program, I'm happy to do a separate dedicated video looking into this topic. Taiwan maintains a fleet of missile attack corvettes and fast missile boats. We have here the Jing Jiang class corvette.
They are a coastal patrol ship intended solely for the surface attack role. To do this, they are armed with the supersonic Hsiung-Feng 3 anti-ship missiles. But their main weakness is that they have no defensive armament and, more importantly, they have no stealth capabilities and are easy to spot. So the combination of a lack of air defense and stealth features means that their survivability in combat is very low. Their main mission in the event of war
with Mainland China is to throw themselves against the PLA Navy, hoping to inflict as much damage as possible before going down. The Tuo Jiang class is a new type of missile attack corvette. Only a few of these are available because they are still under construction. All of the corvettes and smaller warships are built domestically. Only the larger warships are purchased second-hand from overseas. The main improvements of the Tuo Jiang class is in terms of stealth capabilities.
It has stealthy angular surfaces to reduce the radar cross-section. The big idea behind this class is to engage in a form of hit-and-run tactics against the PLA Navy. The corvettes can come in, launch all of its missile payload against the opponent, and get out in one piece by remaining hidden to enemy radar. The ship can then return to port and reload its missiles
in preparation for another attack. The Tuo Jiang class corvette also features a catamaran hull design which provides a high degree of stability in the often rough waters of the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwanese Navy also maintains a swarm of fast missile boats. There are about 30 of these. They are called the Kuang-Hua 6 missile boat. Like the larger missile attack corvettes, they are used mainly in an anti-shipping role. They basically employ the same principle as the Tuo Jiang class
stealth corvette. They will basically engage in the same form of hit-and-run tactics. They are supposed to come in, launch all of their missiles against the PLA Navy warships, and then get out in one piece by remaining hidden to the enemy's radar. However, the Kuang-Hua 6 does not carry any search radars. It only has a navigation radar. The lack of a search radar was done in order to reduce the construction cost, so that these ships can be built in large numbers. The Kuang-Hua 6 missile boat therefore relies on the targeting data provided by the radars of other assets, whether they be friendly warships or aircraft. Taiwan has a sizeable fleet of amphibious warfare ships, but most of these are quite old, because they are purchased second-hand from the United States.
However, since 2016, Taiwan has been developing an indigenous landing platform dock, or LPD for short. They are called Yushan class, named after the highest mountain in Taiwan. Four ships in the class are planned and one has been launched already in April 2021. The Yushan LPD is about 10,600 tons in displacement. They are unusually well-armed for an LPD, with their own CIWS and missiles. The type of missile on the Yushan is not confirmed as of yet, but they are likely to be surface-to-air missiles of some sort. The design is heavily influenced by the US Navy's San Antonio class LPD. The Yushan can carry around 700 marine landing troops, including their amphibious armored
personnel carriers. The primary mission of this class of LPD is to reinforce and resupply Republic of China holdings in the South China Sea and off the coast of the Chinese Mainland. That said, my personal opinion is more pessimistic. I don't think it is worth building. The Yushan LPD might
be large and impressive from the outside, but this is not something that Taiwan really needs. Essentially, it will be completely useless for resisting the PLA Navy in the event of conflict with Mainland China. I mean, what do they plan to do with this thing? Are they going to invade the Mainland? Really? I think Taiwan's limited resources are far better spent on small missile boats and submarines, which are far more survivable and better serve asymmetric warfare purposes. The Republic of China Navy currently maintains around half a dozen amphibious warships.
All of them are very old. They are either World War Two or early Cold War former US Navy ships. Most of them are small tank landing ships. There is also a single large dock landing ship, the ex-American Anchorage class. Their purpose is essentially the same as the Yushan LPD, which is to support the island holdings of the Republic of China by reinforcing and resupplying these islands. These old and mostly small amphibious warfare ships will be gradually
replaced by the Yushan LPD. To conclude, I am going to draw some high-level observations. Firstly, the Republic of China Navy is no match for the PLA Navy. It is inferior in all respect, including air warfare, anti-surface warfare and in terms of submarines. The Taiwanese Navy is
behind in both quantity and quality, and perhaps even more so in terms of quality. I have to say, though, the Taiwanese Navy is more than a match for any Southeast Asian country's naval forces. They are more than sufficient to defend the disputed islands in the South China Sea, at least those that are held currently by the ROC. Another obvious point is that the second-hand ships purchased from the United States are wholly unsuitable for Taiwan's needs. They are old, and they are basically obsolete technologically, and they stick out on Chinese radars like a sore thumb. These former US Navy ships are designed for a head-on battle, which Taiwan cannot win.
If war breaks out with Mainland China, these second-hand ships would not stand a chance. The smaller ships designed and built in Taiwan are far more suitable for the needs of the ROCN. These warships, and submarines in the near future, are far more suitable for asymmetric warfare. They have a low profile, are much more survivable, and are cheaper to build.
They basically trade off blue-water capabilities for greater effectiveness in coastal defense. Except for the Yushan LPD that is. I think that is still a terrible choice for Taiwan to build!
2022-08-15 19:06
