Taiwan Navy Launches 'Carrier Killer'

Taiwan has launched its first domestic-built stealth missile corvette, Tuo Chiang, described by officials as “Asia’s fastest and most powerful warship.”

Taiwan's Lung Teh Shipbuilding Co. started construction of the warship in November 2012 and officially handed it over to the Navy on Tuesday, opening a new chapter for the island's defense forces.

The Tuo River-class corvette costs US$70 million. The media-dubbed "carrier killer" has a maximum speed of 38 knots and a range of 2000 nautical miles, and will be used to patrol the waters between Taiwan and Taiping Island in the South China Sea. The ship is hard to detect with radar. She is described as highly mobile, and is equipped with eight anti-ship missiles. The twin-hull corvette, 60.4 meters in length and 14 meters wide, carries a crew of 41.

The Navy will train and conduct further tests on the ship for six months before deploying it after mid-next year. The Navy plans to commission the building of 11 more such vessels to counter the potential military threat from China.

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