Free Republic

Against the backdrop of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military modernization and growing precision strike capabilities, some media reports indicate that Taipei may have plans to produce 10 to 60 Hsiung Feng III (HF-3; 雄風三型, “Brave Wind III”) supersonic missiles with a range above 162 nautical miles under projects codenamed “God’s Spear” (神戈計劃) and “Coiled Dragon” (蟠龍計畫), respectively. According to the media, an “HF-3 extended range model missile” (雄三增程型飛彈) project may be in the works and a testing phase is slated for completion by the middle of 2017, to enter mass production in 2018. The missiles could be deployed in...

TAIPEI, (AFP) - Taiwan has begun deploying home-made cruise missiles on mobile launchers and that they are capable of hitting major military targets in southeast China, a newspaper here reported. The China Times said the Hsiung Feng missiles, which have a range of 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), were deployed across the island by the defense ministry's new missile command. The missiles, which each cost some 100 million Taiwan dollars (3.13 million US), were developed by the military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the paper said. The institute was also developing cruise missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers for...

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan needs to buy more attack weapons to counter a rapid arms build-up by rival China, the mass circulation United Daily News reported on Monday. The newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying the proposal was made in a report on national security to be issued by President Chen Shui-bian this summer. Officials declined to comment on details of the report. The paper did not specify the types of weapon, saying only they would be for offensive purposes. But it said the weapons would not be nuclear or biological, or have mass destruction capabilities. China considers the self-ruled...