Taiwan will commission two Tuo Jiang-class stealth missile corvettes this week to enhance its asymmetric warfare capabilities in response to growing threats from Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army.
Nicknamed “carrier killers,” the An Jiang and Wan Jiang corvettes are part of the island nation’s initial batch of six relatively small but fast and agile vessels, a military source said Monday. “The An Jiang and Wan Jiang have completed their combat training and will be formally commissioned into the Navy on Wednesday to safeguard our waters,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
These are the fifth and sixth ships of this class, to which a prototype from 2015 is added. These are coastal ships, intended for the direct protection of the island, and the fact that they do not have to rely on a particularly long autonomy means that the displacement can be reduced to less than 800 tons at full load. Much less than a frigate.
Measuring 60.4 metres long and 14 metres wide (198 feet by 46 feet), the corvettes feature a wave-piercing catamaran design. They boast a top speed of 45 knots (83 km/h), a remarkable speed for a vessel of this size.
Illustrative model of the corvettes
Armed with domestically developed Hsiung Feng II and III anti-ship missiles and Hai Chien II anti-aircraft missiles, the ships can attack targets on land or at sea, including aircraft carriers. They are also equipped with OTO Melara 76 mm automatic guns, Phalanx close-in weapon systems and T74 machine guns. The OTO Melara gun, in addition to being an anti-ship gun, has recently proven to be excellent in remote anti-drone action.
The Taiwan Navy said the corvettes incorporate stealth technology to avoid being easily detected and can operate effectively in shallow or coastal waters – areas where larger ships, such as destroyers and frigates, are challenged.
Designed to play a crucial role in Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare strategy, the corvettes are intended to counter the significantly larger force the PLA can mobilize, according to the Navy. Four more corvettes of this class have been commissioned at domestic shipyards.
These ships are called “Carrier killers”, aircraft carrier killers, for the considerable anti-ship and anti-aircraft armament concentrated on a hull of such small dimensions, at high speed and with stealth characteristics that delay their sighting. Furthermore, they are ships of rapid construction, even more than one can be completed per year, and this makes them a suitable means for a possible war of attrition with Beijing.
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