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By Lo Tien-pin and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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The nation’s domestically developed subsonic anti-ship cruise missile system is expected to enter initial capability assessment later this year, a source said yesterday.
The prototype missile system is designed primarily to be launched by vehicles to attack ships at a range of 900km to 1,000km, a source familiar with the work of the Chunghsan Institute of Science and Technology said on condition of anonymity.
The Kratos Defense Mighty Hornet IV uncrewed aerial vehicle could potentially carry this heavy missile if the drone sacrifices some of its aviation fuel storage in favor of weapon payload, they said.
A soldier unloads an AGM-158C Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff missile from a US Air Force B-1 Lancer after it landed in Fairford, UK, on March 11.
Photo: AFP
The as-yet unnamed long-range subsonic cruise missile was developed by leveraging technologies utilized in existing long-range strike weapons and was documented for the first time by the Ministry of National Defense in a list of funded programs last year, the source said.
That the system is ready for testing is credit to the institute’s ability to conduct research and development at speed, they said.
The Yun Feng hypersonic land-attack cruise missile and the extended range variant of the Hsiung Feng IIE missile, which respectively have an effective range of 2,000km and 1,000km, are the only systems with superior range than the prototype in the military’s arsenal, they added.
The successful development of an indigenous alternative could spur Washington to approve the export authorization of the AGM-158C Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, which Taiwan has sought without success, the source said.
The armed forces have long expressed an interest in obtaining the AGM-158C anti-ship missile, as the weapon possesses stealth capabilities, carries a 1 tonne warhead and is based on a battle-proven family of systems in service since 2004, they said.
