Taipei, April 29 (CNA) Taiwan’s first domestically built submarine is almost certain to miss the date that sea trials were scheduled to begin, with only one day remaining until the deadline.
According to the timeline set by the Ministry of National Defense (MND), sea trials for the Narwhal, Taiwan’s Indigenous Defense Submarine (IDS) prototype, were supposed to begin this month and be completed by Sept. 30.
“April was the original goal… We are currently working on improvements and final calibrations to meet the requirements set for sea trials. That is our main goal,” Navy Chief of Staff Chiu Chun-jung (邱俊榮) said Tuesday at an MND news conference, when asked by a reporter whether the schedule had been delayed.
Pressed to say whether the MND will fail to deliver on its word, Chiu said the Navy is focusing on reaching the “technology readiness level required for the vessel to go out to sea, not on the schedule.”
The MND had said on several occasions that sea trials would begin this month, in response to news reports that tests regarding the Narwhal, or “Hai Kun” in Chinese, had experienced setbacks.
On Feb. 26, it said that harbor trials were on schedule and sea trials would proceed as planned in April, amid reports of potential testing delays due to voltage surges from a land-based power supply used in testing causing some components in the submarine to fail.
The IDS program has faced several delays.
Three days prior to the unveiling of the prototype at a photo op attended by then President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in September 2023, Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光), then convener of the program, said the prototype would undergo a harbor acceptance test beginning on Oct. 1, 2023.
That would be followed by a sea acceptance test, and the submarine would hopefully be delivered to the Navy before the end of 2024, Huang said.
At some point last year, the scheduled delivery was pushed back by about a year, to November this year.
Given that timing, and the MND’s acknowledgement in September 2024 that the Narwhal had failed more than 10 categories in the harbor trials, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) took aim at the submarine’s budget in January.
Lawmakers from the two parties voted to freeze NT$2 billion (US$61.91 million) of the funding proposed for fiscal year 2025 for the IDS program, or about half of the proposed total, with the proviso that the funds can only be unfrozen after the Narwhal passes the sea trials.
Chiu said Tuesday that the funding would be unfrozen if sea trials are finished on time and the MND gives a briefing about them at the legislature.
Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told reporters at the legislature last week that the submarine’s contractor, CSBC Corp, will face a fine if it fails to deliver the sub to the Navy in November, as per the contract.
