Taiwan lawmakers say yes to navy micro-boats, but want to see a prototype first
- Restricted funding for 60-strong assault fleet until legislators are satisfied the design is right
- War boats will be the size of fishing vessels
Taiwan’s parliament has given initial support to an NT$31.6 billion (US$1 billion) naval plan to build a fleet of small assault boats to boost the self-ruled island’s defence in the face of a growing military threat from the mainland.
But legislators from both the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) want to see a prototype before committing to the full funding package for the planned 60 micro-boats, intended to improve Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare capability.
In a review of the NT$468 million allocated to the first year of the project in 2019, lawmakers agreed on Wednesday to approve half of the budgeted spending.
“We have decided to slash NT$200 million from the NT$468 million budget for next year as we believe it would be more effective for the navy to first complete a prototype of the assault boat to see if there is room for adjustment or improvement before mass production of the vessels,” KMT legislator Johnny Chiang said.
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His DPP colleague Tsai Shih-ying said the decision was meant to ensure the construction funding went to the right place.