Nothing is simple for Taiwan when it comes to finding international partners in defense programs. But the replacement of its 4 attack submarines, two dating from the end of the Second World War, and two from the mid-1980s, is all the more difficult, as the only country which officially dares to defy the embargo de facto imposed by Beijing on weapons destined for Taiwan, the United States has not built a conventionally powered submarine for more than 50 years. And building a ship as complex as a 2000-ton submarine without external support is a project of colossal difficulty...
However, this is what the Taiwanese authorities decided to do, with the start, on November 3, of the construction of the first locally-made attack submarine of the Indigenous Defense Submarine program, with a budget of 50 Billion Taiwanese dollars, or €1.5 billion. Officially, the construction of the submersible, which brings together 6 large local companies, must be completed in 2024, and sea trials must take place in 2025. The characteristics of the submersible, other than its tonnage which is announced "between 1500 and 2000 tonnes" , are for the moment marked with the seal of secrecy.
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