By empowering its cruise missile program, Taiwan is taking its gloves off in its cross-Strait standoff.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/15
By: Paul Huang
Credit: 國家中山科學研究院 / Youtube
Taiwan is reportedly building a new batch of cruise missiles with an extended range of up to 1,200 kilometers, giving them the capability to strike targets deep inside mainland China.
The move is a long-deliberated response to deter Beijing in the midst of a rapidly growing military imbalance in the Taiwan Strait, where a belligerent China has already deployed thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles with the capability to hit the democratic island nation.
Upmedia of Taiwan reported that the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E), the Taiwanese military’s indigenous-produced surface-to-surface cruise missile, is about to conclude the first phase of its production, which started in 2008 with at least 240 missiles built. The second production phase of HF-2E missiles will begin in 2019, with the newest batch of HF-2Es capable of hitting targets up to 1,200 kilometers away.
At least 100 HF-2E missiles with extended range will be built, and a budget of NT$13.6 billion (about US$440 million) has already been allocated, according to Upmedia. [FULL STORY]