After the additional purchase budget and price offer sheet for the M142 "Haimas" multiple launch rocket system have been finalized, the total purchase quantity is as high as 111 sets, and it is expected that all of them will arrive in Taiwan starting in 2030. The picture shows the National Army firing precision rockets of the Haimas Multiple Launch Rocket System with live ammunition during a missile shooting exercise. (File photo)
[Reporter Luo Tianbin/Reporting from Taipei] The national military’s strategic layout of building the first island chain of precision missile islands is ushering in an earth-shaking and critical transformation! my country purchased the M142 "Haimas" multiple launch rocket system in batches from the United States. After the additional purchase budget and price offer have been finalized, the total purchase quantity is as high as 111 sets, and it is expected that all of them will arrive in Taiwan starting in 2030. Military sources revealed that after the armies in the western part of the island complete the refitting, the counterattack fire network will inevitably be further "forward deployed" to key outer island defense areas such as Penghu and Dongyin in the future. This deployment adjustment will break the traditional defensive thinking, directly establish cross-sea source anti-access strike capabilities, and form a substantial strategic deterrent to the coastal facilities in the eastern theater of the Communist Party of China.
Under the guiding principle of "attack is the most effective defense," the greatest core combat capability of these additional Haimas multiple-launch rockets is the ATACMS Army Tactical Area Missile equipped with the vehicle, which has a range of up to 300 kilometers. Senior military officials have assessed that if all 111 Haimas systems are deployed on the main island of Taiwan, the precise and deep suppression characteristics of this weapon will not be fully utilized despite the high overlap in firepower. Only by reversing the force deployment on the outer islands and stationing a certain number of Haimas systems in the east of Penghu and the northern border of the country can the asymmetric kill chain be greatly moved forward and directly counter the first wave of threats from the source of China's southeastern coast.
According to the military's current defense operation plan, if the Haimas are pushed forward to Penghu, given the geographical advantage of the Penghu Islands being only about 120 to 140 kilometers away from the coast of Fujian, China, a 300-kilometer tactical missile can easily cross the sea and reach more than 150 kilometers inland on the opposite coast. By then, the CCP's landing assembly points, military ports, and major cities in Quanzhou, Xiamen, and Zhangzhou will be directly covered by our precision attack fire network. This means that in the future, when the amphibious fleet of the Communist Army is preparing to leave the port in the "early stage", even before it crosses the central line of the strait, the national army will have the ability to kill and destroy it directly at the source, greatly increasing the strategic warning time of Taiwan's main island.
In addition, the Dongyin Regional Command, which is at the forefront and has the most sensitive location, is also the assessment and planning location for Haimas forward deployment. Once Haimas is stationed in Dongyin, the 300-kilometer range will not only be able to contain the People's Liberation Army's air force base in Fuzhou and military ports such as Xiapu and Sanduao, but its firepower can even reach northward to the naval bases in eastern theaters such as Wenzhou and Taizhou in Zhejiang. When all 111 sets of Haimas are broken into parts across Taiwan and key outlying islands in 2030 and fully prepared for combat, this elusive offensive missile force will force the Communist Army's first-line training bases and supply bases along the coast to evacuate at least 100 kilometers back in order to improve the battlefield survival rate.
In the future, Haimas will also complement the domestically-made Thunder 2000 multi-launch rocket system currently in service on outlying islands in terms of the assembly structure on outer islands. The Thunder 2000 is responsible for coastal killing within 45 kilometers, while the Haimas is responsible for the cross-sea source denial 70 kilometers to 300 kilometers away. The two work together to build a seamless double-layer asymmetric fire network on the outer island. As 111 Haimas systems and more than 500 tactical missiles will be put in place by 2030, the strategic positioning of the outer islands has officially changed from "defensive defense" to "offensive intimidation." The coordinated defense of US-made and domestically-made equipment has essentially severely damaged the communist army's tactical calculations to invade southern and western Taiwan.
