Taiwan Shows Off Domestically Made Naval Ships

Taiwan's navy is demonstrating how it uses its domestically made ships to train service members to protect the country's maritime borders.

Transcript

00:00I'm here in Kaohsiung, which is home to Taiwan's largest naval base, for the final

00:04parts of military exercises ahead of the Lunar New Year.

00:08The Navy is letting us hop on aboard some of their ships to see how they're training

00:12to protect the country's maritime borders.

00:16Military personnel here are conducting a simulation of how they would respond to a suspicious

00:20vessel heading towards Taiwan in an attempt to breach the country's maritime border.

00:26What they're doing is dispatching teams of two corvettes armed with anti-ship missiles

00:30in less than 30 minutes to practice real combat maneuvers.

00:44Also on display are rare underwater operations, where divers practice recovering equipment

00:49and fixing critical infrastructure to keep their ships at sea as long as possible.

00:57Last year, Taiwan reported the highest number of Chinese Coast Guard and naval ships operating

01:02around the country as China conducted three large-scale military exercises.

01:08That's why in recent years, Taiwan has invested heavily into its domestic shipbuilding industry

01:12to ease reliance on the U.S., which is Taiwan's largest provider of weapons.

01:18All the ships taking part in this drill have been made in Taiwan, with the newest vessel,

01:22the Dawu, commissioned and put into service just three months ago.

01:38With a range of maritime threats around Taiwan, the Navy says that the most important thing

01:43is to cooperate with other branches of the military to get a complete picture of what's

01:47happening around the country.

01:48This will be even more pertinent when there's an uptick in travel ahead of the Lunar New

01:52Year as many people go for their long holiday.

01:55Fu Hua Hong in Haimeokan in Kaohsiung for Taiwan Plus.