While the Chinese Communist Party's military exercises around Taiwan have normalized the gray zone sea and air blockade, the prototype of the domestically-made submarine Haikun, which is crucial to Taiwan's underwater anti-blockade lifeline, will advance to the deep-water submersible test of more than 100 meters. However, there was a recent news in the Congress hall that the opposition group was jointly planning to freeze the tens of billions of dollars in upfront payment for the follow-up ship, citing disputes over schedule fine-tuning and contract performance. This major military-building project, which is related to Taiwan's survival defense line, is facing a double attack from the extreme water pressure of the deep sea and the short-sighted internal friction of the political party. The slightest carelessness will destroy the Great Wall.
It is rumored that Congress will freeze the budget, Taiwan’s defense line may be broken
The submarine Haikun will launch "deep-water submersible testing" in the near future. (File photo) More than 97% of Taiwan’s energy relies on imported sea shipping, and the safe stock of natural gas can only last for a few days. Under the threat of sea and air blockade surrounded by powerful enemies, traditional surface ships are extremely vulnerable to enemy saturation anti-ship missiles. Diesel-electric submarines that covertly shuttle in deep underwater trenches have the asymmetric denial advantage of stealth, penetration and ambush in chokepoints. They are the last strategic weapon to break the bloodless blockade and ensure the international maritime lifeline.
The international defense think tank Bingtui has repeatedly confirmed that every time Taiwan deploys a qualified diesel-electric submarine, the enemy must deploy several anti-submarine aviation squadrons and a large number of surface ships to carry out regional suppression, and the combat costs will increase exponentially; if there is no underwater depth as a backing, all land-based air defense and beach defense will fall into a deadlock due to the loss of external supplies.
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Looking at the history of shipbuilding in advanced navies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan, the first prototype submarine of each country needs an average of one and a half to more than two years to adjust the hydraulic valves and sonar silence during the deep-water test phase facing dozens of atmospheric pressures. Deep-sea physics does not allow for any political impetuosity, and any tiny welding bead or pipeline defect is related to the lives and combat effectiveness of the entire ship. The Naval Command insists on putting safety first and does not set a ship delivery schedule. It fines the contractor 190,000 yuan per day and a total of nearly 60 million yuan in accordance with the law. This just proves that the military strictly abides by contract discipline and shipbuilding quality control, and there is no suspicion of giving or taking. To twist the in-depth testing and adjustment that countries must undergo in scientific research into an engineering malpractice is undoubtedly to use layman's terms to discredit the outstanding efforts of top experts from many countries to overcome the diplomatic blockade.
International cooperation must be started in advance when signing contracts, scheduling production and preparing materials
The submarine's core combat system, high-sensitivity sonar and heavy-duty torpedoes are all long-delivery special control equipment. The picture shows the Haikun leaving port. (File photo, provided by Taiwan Shipbuilding) The opposition group claimed that the budget for the follow-up ship should not be released before the Haikun has been delivered to the army. This seems to be in line with the financial common sense of controlling taxes, but in fact it completely deviates from the objective operational logic of modern high-tech military procurement; the core battle system of the submarine, high-sensitivity sonar and heavy torpedoes are all long-delivery special control equipment, and the contracting and production preparation period is as long as two to three years. The international cooperation process must be started in advance. Dozens of key European, American and Japanese manufacturers have signed supply contracts with Taiwan under great diplomatic pressure. If Congress completely freezes the budget due to fierce political party fighting at this time, multinational suppliers will inevitably transfer precious production quotas to other countries; once a production capacity cliff is triggered and the technical backbone is scattered, the cost of future negotiations and breach of contract for restarting production lines will increase by more than 30%. Not only will it fail to save public funds, but it will push Taiwan into the danger of losing its defense chain.
Congressional oversight in a democratic country is of course sacred and inviolable, but mature representative politics should be based on professional checks and balances rather than scorched-earth boycotts; legislators can ask the military to go to the Legislative Yuan to conduct a confidential project report after the sea survey is passed, and set a management and examination threshold for installment expenditures, instead of extorting national security with the brutal method of freezing the entire amount. In the face of the unrelenting expansion ambitions across the Taiwan Strait, homemade submarines are a solid shield for Taiwan to break the maritime siege, and are also a touchstone to show its will to self-defense to its democratic allies in the Indo-Pacific. Only when the ruling and opposition parties put down their power calculations and give deep-sea sea trials the greatest professional trust and legal budget support can Taiwan straighten its spine in the turbulent waves and win true dignity and peace.
Legislators can ask the military to go to the Legislative Yuan to conduct a confidential project report after the sea test is passed, and set a management and examination threshold for installment expenditures, instead of using the crude method of freezing the entire amount to extort national security. (File photo) (The author is a freelancer with a professional background in military and political science)
