Posted on 07/01/2012 9:02:22 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Taiwan retires 20 fast attack missile boats
(AFP) – 7 hours ago
TAIPEI — Taiwan on Sunday decommissioned the last 20 of a fleet of ageing missile boats as part of ongoing efforts to modernise its military forces against former rival China, officials said.
The navy bid farewell to the 50-tonne Seagull-class missile boats during a ceremony held in the southern Tsoying naval base, more than three decades after they had been put into service.
The Taiwanese navy first built the missile boats, reportedly an imitation of Israel's Dvora-class patrol boats, in the late 1970s and later mass produced them in the early 1980s.
The navy had thought the fleet, numbering around 50, would act as "hit and run" boats should a conflict break out in the Taiwan Strait.
With a maximum speed of 74 kilometres (46 miles) per hour, each of the boats was armed with Hsiungfeng I (Brave Wind I) ship-to-ship missiles.
The Seagull boats have now been replaced by 30 missile boats built under the so-called "Kuang Hwa No 6 Project" launched in 2000.
Each of the 171-tonne vessels is armed with four Hsiungfeng II missiles, an improved version of the Hsiungfeng I.
Ties between Taiwan and China have eased markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came
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What's "former" about rival China?
Armed with a single MA-2 .50 caliber Browning, this much feared naval vessel carries up to 30 rounds of aluminum piercing ammunition. It is the first in an entirely new naval architecture class -- technically, “clitoral” (not to be confused with “littoral”) -- being pushed on the Pentagon by the defense minded wussies in the Obama Administration as a cost-saving measure. If you look closely, you can see the heavy-duty seat restraint which prevents the pilot/gunner – Kamakazi Kowalski – from leaping from the vessel prior to engaging the enemy. The 12 V trolling motor – which lacks a reverse function -- propels this sophisticated craft forward at a top speed of 4 knots. Reverse travel – at approximately 35 knots -- is achieved by firing the Browning.
They’re no longer a rival to China, just an irritant. They lost their UN seat and most diplomatic recognition as the legitimate Chinese government, and China overtook them economically and militarily.
Your post was hilarious. And like all quality humor, it's rooted in fact.
TY — TYVM. :-)
Surprised the chicoms haven’t alreadt went ahead and taken the island. Do they really think Obama would do anything about it?
Surprised the chicoms haven’t alreadt went ahead and taken the island. Do they really think Obama would do anything about it?
No American blood for Taipei!
What a surplus deal! My last chance to give rival yacht clubs a taste of the old Bofors. Any left?
“What’s “former” about rival China?”
Referring to China as a military threat is no longer permitted. For if that were allowed, we’d have to take our own national defense seriously - and after wasting decades defending ourselves from the non-existent Soviet threat, we simply cannot afford.
(even though the Soviets had, and probably still have, something like 10 times the nukes and conventional weapons as ourselves - and pointed at us, we all just imagined that they were a threat, since they never attacked us)
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