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By Liu Yu-chieh and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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The navy has renewed the initiative for building next-generation guided missile frigates, Ministry of National Defense bidding notices showed.
They sought designs for a frigate’s hull structure, command and control, radar, propulsion and weapon systems, among others, a request for information on procurement posted on the government’s public information Web site on Tuesday last week showed.
The next-generation guided missile frigate was not mentioned by name, but Taiwan has no other frigate programs.
A model of a next-generation frigate is pictured in an undated photograph.
Photo: Taipei Times
The navy had previously obtained a draft for the 6,500-tonne advanced warship, significantly more than the planned 4,500 tonnes.
That meant either the state-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology achieved a breakthrough in creating a compact active electronically scanned array (AESA) or the navy gave up on the original concept and returned to the drawing board.
The proposed frigates — meant to serve as the centerpiece of the navy’s surface fleet — faced troubles during its development, as the program had to change requirements and specifications.
The Control Yuan last year released a report saying that the program had been mismanaged, resulting in delays that compromised national defense.
The navy had told the public that the next-generation warship would be equal to and compatible with the Aegis combat system used by the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
That advanced warship would have been armed with a domestically-produced battle management system and vertical launching system, anti-ship and air defense weapons, and sonar, they said.
However, the initial requirements the navy submitted to the Chungshan Institute specified a passive electronically scanned array, only for the navy to switch to an AESA after development was well on its way.
The Chungshan Institute developed the AESA capability as requested, but the system proved too bulky for the intended size of the frigate, a problem that led to the program being shelved.
