Whether Taiwan can build its own submarines was the focus of discussion at the Legislature on Thursday.
The head of the defense ministry’s resource planning division, Chen Cheng-chi, said the country has a certain level of design capability to construct submarines. He said however that domestic shipyards would have to be altered to do so. Chen said Taiwan has the ability to build its own submarines with technical assistance from abroad.
In addition, key equipment and materials would have to be acquired from other countries, he said.
The prospect of Taiwan developing its own submarines has been considered since the United States stalled on a plan from 2001 to sell eight subs to Taiwan.