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| SS-711 Haikun. Photo : China Times |
Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China ( ROC ), is an island state located in the East China Sea. It is separated from mainland China by the narrow Taiwan Strait. Its political status has been in a flux even since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, fought between the Kuomintang-led government forces ( KMT ) of the ROC and the forces of Chinese Communist Party ( CCP ). The defeated KMT forces retreated to Taiwan leaving the Chinese mainland to the CCP. Even though Taiwan considers itself an independant state, China regards it as a renegade province and has continued to lay claim on the territory, threatening to, if necessary, use military force to reclaim the island. It has consistantly made it very difficult for Taiwan to acquire weapons to defend itself against any potential Chinese invasion. It does so by threatening trade embargoes and sanctions on the weapons supplying country and that meant when it was time for the Taiwanese Navy ( aka Republic of China Navy, ROCN ) to replace its ageing diesel-electric submarines, there was not a single supplier it could turn to.
It eventually embarked on the Indigenous Defense Submarine ( IDS ) project in 2016 with technical assistance from various allies like the United States of America, Japan and the United kingdom. A total of 8 IDS was planned of which the first-in-class, the Haikun was launched in Kaoshiung by President Cai Yingwen today.
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| President Cai Yingwen with a model of the Haikun. Photo : China Times |
Haikun
The submarine is named after a giant fish known as the kun ( 鲲 ) in Chinese mythology. It is said that the kun could transform into a giant bird known as the peng ( 鹏 ). The origins of this Kun-Peng legend is often attributed to the ancient Chinese scholar Zhuangzi's Xiaoyaoyu ( 庄子. 逍遥游 ) where he describes : In the Northern Darkness, there is a fish, its name is Kun, its so huge I do not know how many miles it measures. Transformed into a bird, its name is Peng, whose back is so huge I do not know how many miles it measures. When angered it takes to the skies, its wings are as enormous as the hanging clouds. When the seas begin to move, this bird sets off for the Southern Darkness, which is the Lake of Heaven.
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| Artist's rendition of the Kun. Image : Baidu |
The prefix Hai ( 海 ) means sea in Chinese. All of the ROCN's existing fleet of four submarines have this prefix as part of their names. SS-791 Hai Shih ( 海狮 Sea Lion ), SS-792 Hai Bao ( 海豹 Sea Leopard ), SS-793 Hai Lung ( 海龙 Sea Dragon ), SS-794 Hai Hu ( 海虎 Sea Tiger ).
Therefore it is not surprising that its newest submarine is also carry the same Hai prefix. So Haikun or Hai Kun it is. Its pennant number is SS-711.
The Indigenous Defense Submarine Program
It was never easy for Taiwan to have even dreamt of building its own submarine twenty years ago. It did not have any pre-existing cacapility or experience of submarine design and construction. But with no foreign supplier willing to risk invoking the anger of China by selling Taiwan the submarines it so badly needed, the Taiwanese had no option other than embarking on the IDS program.
Unfortunately, its main ally the USA had long given up on building conventional diesel-electric submarines and could not provide much help in designing the submarine. Still, the Americans provided the torpedoes and the combat management system for the IDS. Help in designing the submarine likely came from Japan and the IDS does strongly resemble a Japanese Soryu-class submarine externally especially with its X-rudder. It is said that retired Japanese marine engineers have also been assisting the Taiwanese with the IDS project.
The Hai Kun is said to cost $1.54 billion and will be commissioned in 2024. The ROCN hopes to have a fleet of 10 operational submarines eventually, comprising 8 IDS and the 2 Hai Lung-class boats. At long last it can start the retirement process for the two ex-WWII Guppy-class submarines which are still being used as training submarines.
Watch the launch of the Hai Kun here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab4S2vgmDNE
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