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Solutions surface for Taiwan sub
deal
By David Isenberg
A
recent flurry of events is making Taiwan's acquisition
of eight diesel-electric submarines, as promised last
year by US President George W Bush, more likely.
According to a briefing by a Taiwanese naval
officer in June, the military has compiled a budget for
the purchase of the eight submarines from the United
States. Currently, four Kidd-class destroyers and
submarines in the advanced operation plan are included
in next year's budget. However, because the type of
submarine is not decided, no temporary special budget is
needed.
Meanwhile, the Republic of China (ROC)
Navy is planning to build a "subterranean submarine
base" for its new subs. Different design plans,
including providing covering hoods to the submarines or
carving docking places out of granite cliffs for the
submarines, have been advanced to prevent the subs from
being photographed by reconnaissance satellites after
they go into service.
The Taiwanese navy agreed
to make a decision on what type of submarines and
contractors it wants within 18 months, during
closed-door discussions with a team of US experts July
23-25. Gibson LeBoeuf, deputy chief of the US Navy's
international program department, led the US team. The
officials were still focusing on the project's first
phase: working out a strategy for getting the subs built
and setting a budget. A Team Diesel Submarine group
currently in Taipei was set up last September to clarify
the situation, according to a report in Jane's Defence
Weekly.
During the recent negotiations, the US
side asked Taiwan to select the types of submarines and
related weaponry systems it wanted to acquire so that it
could bring the data back to the United States for
assessment. Reportedly, the US delegation asked Taiwan
"to specify its options on items including the type of
submarine to purchase, its fighting system, power and
torpedo".
The United States has not built
conventional submarines for more than 40 years and
designing an entirely new one would be prohibitively
expensive. Therefore, the most likely solution would
involve foreign participation. Taiwan agreed to choose
from submarines already in service in other countries.
The key factor in the deal will be getting an export
license from the country that owns the intellectual
property rights of the submarine.
As it will
take about three years to complete discussions on the
deal and about another five years to build the
submarines the ROC Navy will not obtain the newly
designed submarines, which will cost about NT$150
billion (US$4.4 billion) each, until after 2010.
Military sources have said Taiwan's navy favors
Germany's 209-class submarines or Dutch-designed Moray
submarines. Both countries have said they would not get
involved in arms sales to the island, which Beijing
regards as part of its territory to be unified with the
mainland by force if necessary.
Germany denied
it had opened the door to exporting state-of-the-art
conventional submarines to Taiwan by allowing a US
investor to buy a German shipyard that makes them. A
Chicago-based investment company, One Equity Partners,
took a 75 percent stake in Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft
(HDW), a German submarine producer.
Military
analysts believe Washington could try to bypass the
hurdle by having the warships built in the United States
but using foreign designs. Two giant US defense
contractors, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Dynamic
Corp, are interested in the deal, which could keep
thousands of US workers busy for about a decade.
The US team also advised the Taiwanese navy that
the German-built Dolphin-class submarines now serving
the Israeli navy could be taken into consideration.
Indeed, Antonio Chiang, deputy chief of the Taiwan
National Security Council, reportedly inspected one on a
clandestine trip to Israel.
According to a
recent report in Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, it
appears that Germany will work with the United States to
provide eight Israeli-designed, German-built
Dolphin-class conventional submarines to the ROC Navy.
Also Israel would, as part of the deal, sell its three
retired Gal-class SSKs - precursors to the Dolphin class
- to Taiwan. While the sale of the Gals would not give
Taiwan much additional capability, it would familiarize
the ROC Navy with some of the Israeli technology,
systems and methods that would be found on the new
Dolphins to be built in Germany.
Also, at a
recent Ministry of National Defense news conference,
Rear Admiral Tung Hsiang-lung, director of the ROC
Navy's Bureau of Plans, said that the state-run China
Shipbuilding Corp (CSBC) had not been excluded from the
list of defense contractors that the navy seeks to
cooperate with.
"The navy strongly supports
CSBC's bid to build part of the eight submarines, since
it is the government's policy to promote the indigenous
defense industry," he said. For China Shipbuilding, a
chance to build submarines would be just the thing to
ensure that a company that has turned a profit in only
four of the past 20 years stays in business (see Taiwan
shipbuilder given two years to turn around , Aug 9).
Tung indicated that to reduce risks to the plan
and the budget, the navy would promote an overall plan
with separate years and separate phases, and proceed in
two phases, a "preliminary planning phase" and a
"construction phase". The preliminary planning phase
will focus on soliciting and selecting a supplier. This
effort will include the US Navy completing and issuing a
solicitation document. Firms that bid must also submit
documentation such as intellectual property rights of
the operations group and the possibility of export
permits. It is estimated that this could be accomplished
in a year and a half, if all goes smoothly.
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights
reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com
for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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