Taiwan's 1st indigenous defense submarine begins submerged tests

Kaohsiung, Jan. 29 (CNA) Taiwan's indigenous defense submarine (IDS) prototype sailed out of Kaohsiung Harbor on Thursday to begin its first-ever submerged tests.

The submarine, christened Hai Kun, or Narwhal in English, departed the harbor at around 10 a.m. Dozens of military enthusiasts gathered along the waterfront for the occasion, many waving the Republic of China (Taiwan) flag and chanting "Let's go, Hai Kun!"

The start of the test was announced by CSBC Corp., the IDS program's primary contractor, in a press release issued the previous day.

The Hai Kun was originally scheduled to complete sea trials by November 2025, but the timeline was pushed back as it underwent final adjustments ahead of the submergence tests.

Completion of sea trials is crucial to the IDS program, as it would release an NT$1 billion tranche in funding for seven subsequent submarines, which the Legislature froze last year amid delays.

In its press release, CSBC also defended the program against frequent criticism that the submarine is overly expensive and that progress toward delivering it to the Navy has been too slow.

It has been nearly four years since the Hai Kun's keel laying in November 2021, which CSBC said is faster than construction timelines for submarines built by other countries, such as the United Kingdom's Upholder-class and South Korea's KSS-II-class, which took 6.5 years and five years, respectively.

The Hai Kun's cost of NT$37.9 billion, excluding torpedoes and storage facilities, is also moderate compared with foreign diesel-electric submarine programs, CSBC said, citing South Korea's Jang Bogo-class submarines at NT$78.4 billion and Germany's Type 214 submarines at NT$95.9 billion at current exchange rates.