Taiwan's submarine prototype continues submerged tests

Kaohsiung, Feb. 5 (CNA) Taiwan's indigenous defense submarine (IDS), Hai Kun (海鯤), sailed from a shipyard in the southern port city of Kaohsiung on Thursday morning for its latest round of submerged tests, one week after a previous round was deemed successful.

The prototype, known as Narwhal in English, was spotted heading out to sea from CSBC Corp., Taiwan, at around 8:30 a.m. for its third round of submerged testing.

The latest test drew many military enthusiasts to Kaohsiung Harbor to show support for the IDS project.

Among the crowd was military expert Chi Tung-yun (紀東昀), who told CNA that the Hai Kun, a Taiwan Navy Dawu-class rescue and salvage ship, and a domestically made military-use unmanned surface vehicle (USV), Endeavor Manta, were also seen leaving port around the same time to accompany the IDS.

Chi said he believes Thursday's tests again focused on shallow-water submerged trials at depths of under 100 meters, similar to the two previous rounds of tests conducted last month.

The trial frequency suggests that the overall condition of the IDS has stabilized and that lengthy dry dock adjustments are no longer required before proceeding to subsequent tests, he added.

In a Jan. 30 press release, the builder CSBC said it would continue testing the Hai Kun to ensure it meets the Navy's operational and combat needs.

CSBC said last year that the shallow-depth tests are intended to verify the submarine's basic systems, followed by progressively deeper trials to assess performance under increasing pressure in deeper waters.