ASYMMETRIC WARFARE: The defense ministry plans to complete construction of eight corvettes by 2025 to boost the nation’s combat capability, the ministry said
Taipei Times
Date: May 15, 2018
By: Lo Tien-pin, Lu Yi-hsuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer
Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) yesterday confirmed plans to bring forward
A Tuo Jiang-class corvette takes part in the annual Han Kuang military exercise off Penghu County on May 25 last year. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
the nation’s construction of 11 Tuo Jiang-class corvettes by completing them in two instead of three phases.
Yen made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in response to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng’s (羅致政) question about whether the military is making adjustments to counter the Chinese threat.
The corvette is a crucial piece of the military’s asymmetric warfare and shortening its construction schedule would increase the nation’s combat capability, Yen said.
The ministry purchased 12 corvettes in total, with the first ship delivered in 2014, it said.
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