INTERIM:The MND was planning to replace outdated Hawk missiles with Tien Kung III systems, but deployed PAC-3 batteries due to a backlog in production, sources said
Taipei Times
Date:| Feb 05, 2017
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile systems were moved to the Hualien and
A Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile is being fired in an undated picture.
Screengrab from Lockheed Martin’s Web site
Taitung areas ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday to ensure that Taiwan’s southeastern border is adequately defended in case of an attack, sources at the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said.
The relocation was prompted by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force conducting several training missions around Taiwanese airspace over the past few months and a Chinese naval group consisting of China’s sole aircraft carrier and five other vessels sailing as close as 20 nautical miles (37km) of Taiwan’s southeastern air defense zone, the sources said.
The group sailed 90 nautical miles south of Pingtung County’s Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, as it headed for the western Pacific Ocean on a long-distance training mission, they said. [FULL STORY]
