Taiwan launches new corvette and commissions minelayer
Taiwan’s indigenous shipbuilding programme bears fruit with new corvette, OPV and minelayer classes progressing.
Taiwan launched the Republic of China Navy’s (ROCN) first improved Tuo Chiang-class guided missile corvette in the northeast port city of Suao in Yilan County on 14 December.
The launch ceremony for ROCS Ta Chiang (pennant number 619), built by Lung Teh Shipbuilding, was attended by President Tsai Ing-wen, Defence Minister Yen Te-fa and ROCN commander Gen Liu Chih-pin.
Its launch came six years after the class’s prototype was commissioned on 23 December 2014, though it is some 185t larger in displacement than the forerunner. It is believed the hull will now be fitted out in a Kaohsiung shipyard
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