Taiwan says it has begun mass production of long-range missiles

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan has begun mass production of a long-range missile and is developing three more models, a senior official said on Thursday, in a rare admission of efforts to develop strike capability amid rising pressure Chinese.

China, which claims democratic Taiwan as its own territory, has intensified military activity near the island as it tries to force the Taipei government to accept Beijing’s claims to sovereignty.

Taiwan’s armed forces, pushed by those in China, are in the midst of a modernization program to provide a more effective deterrent, including the ability to re-attack China’s bases in the event of conflict.

Asking lawmakers in parliament, Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said developing a long-range attack capability was a priority.

“We hope it is long-range, accurate and mobile,” he said, adding that research on these weapons by the state-owned Chung-Shan National Institute of Science and Technology had never stopped. “.

Along with Chiu, the institute’s deputy director, Leng Chin-hsu, said a long-range surface-to-air missile had already gone into production, with three other long-range missiles under development.

Leng said it was “not convenient” to provide details on how far the missile could fly.

The institute, which is leading Taiwan’s weapons development efforts, has conducted a series of missile tests on the southeast coast in recent months.

Taiwanese media have carried images of missile launches and instructed the planes to stay away from the test area, but the tests have been secretly hidden.

Taiwan’s armed forces have traditionally concentrated on defending the island from a Chinese attack.

But President Tsai Ing-wen has stressed the importance of developing an “asymmetric” deterrent factor, which uses mobile equipment that is hard to find and destroy and capable of hitting targets far from the Taiwan coast.

Washington, Taipei’s main foreign arms supplier, has been eager to create a military counterweight to Chinese forces, building on an effort known to the Pentagon as the “Taiwan Fortress.”