New cutters expand Taiwan’s coast guard
Taiwan’s newest 3,000t coast guard cutter Kaohsiung (CG129) has commenced a secretive first deployment.
Kaohsiung departed its homeport in southern Taiwan on 11 June, just five days after being commissioned. It took Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Minister Wang Chung-yi on a five-day mission that encompassed the monthly Bi-Hai exercise patrolling around the Taiwan-controlled Taiping Island in the Spratly chain.
The 119m-long cutter and its sister ship Yilan (CG128) were built by the Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Group from 2011-14. Yilan also commissioned on 6 June.
They are armed with a Bofors 40mm L/70 gun, a T-75S 20mm cannon, several machine guns
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