Taiwanese Leadership Visits First Domestically-built Attack Boat, Highlights Deterrent Role

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te boarded Taipei’s first domestically-built attack boat and highlighted the role of submarines in upholding deterrence last week during a visit to the island’s naval forces. “Submarines are an important tool for our country’s development of ‘strategic deterrence,’ as well as a crucial defensive weapon for countering maritime blockades and expanding strategic depth,” Lai said March 19 in his remarks to the Republic of China Navy’s 256th Submarine Squadron. Hai Kun (SS-711), translating to Narwhal, is the first of a class of domestically-designed and built 2,500-ton diesel-electric attack boats. Derived from the Indigenous Defense Submarine program, these