Taiwanese military installations face ever-increasing risks from Chinese cruise missiles, as well as other aerial threats.

The Drive
Date: August 14, 2019
By: Joseph trevithick

Taiwan has expanded the development of its still-in-development Sea Oryxnaval point defense system to include and land-based variant. This could help provide an important additional layer of defenses around various critical military installations against cruise missiles, anti-radiation missiles, and small drones, as well as potentially larger threats, such as helicopters and low-flying manned aircraft.

Taiwan's National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, or NCSIST, showed a video presentation on Sea Oryx at biennial Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition that included a depiction of a truck-mounted version of the system for what appears to be the first time. The video also shows the point defense system fitted on a future guided-missile destroyer, which NCIST is also developing, as well as one of the country's upcoming stealthy catamaran missile corvettes, a program 

Sea Oryx, which NCSIST first announced publicly in 2015, is similar in general concept to the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM). The missile is a derivative of the Tien Chien 1L (TC-1L), or Sky Sword 1L, surface-to-air missile, which is, itself, derived from the AIM-9 Sidewinder. The weapon leverages the imaging infrared seeker from the earlier TC-1L missile, along with its forward control surfaces, and combined them with a new rear section that includes a significantly larger and more powerful rocket motor.

The complete system includes a launcher with either 12 or 24 missiles at the ready and a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor to help identify targets before launch. Sea Oryx will also be able to use targeting data from off-board sensors, such as ship-mounted or land-based radars, to cue the missiles.    [FULL  STORY]