Taiwan aims to double missile production as Beijing tensions rise
- Missile and attack drone production boost outlined in defence ministry report to parliament
- PLA planes have in recent months repeatedly flown through Taiwan’s air defence zone
This comes after Taiwan in November approved extra military spending of NT$240 billion (US$8.6 billion) over the next five years, as tensions with Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory, hit a new high. People’s Liberation Army planes have in recent months repeatedly flown through Taiwan’s air defence identification zone.
Taiwan’s defence ministry, in a report sent to parliament for review by lawmakers, said the extra spending included plans to boost annual missile production capacity to 497, from the current 207 a year.
Among these are Taiwan’s self-produced Wan Chien air-to-ground missiles, as well as the upgraded version of the Hsiung Feng IIE missile, the longer-range Hsiung Sheng land-attack missile that military experts say is capable of hitting targets further inland in mainland China.
The ministry was also planning to start manufacturing unspecified “attack drones” with an annual production target of 48.
The military-owned National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology aims to build 34 new missile-producing facilities by the end of June, a move that would help meet a “production peak” starting in 2023, the report said.
About 64 per cent of the extra military spending, which comes on top of a planned NT$471.7 billion expenditure for 2022, will go towards anti-ship weapons such as land-based missile systems, including a NT$148.9 billion plan to mass produce home-grown missiles and “high-performance” ships.