Taiwan has deployed its new secret surface-to-surface cruise missile Hsiung Feng IIE HD-2E 0403131.

The HF-2E LACM, developed by the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST), entered mass production under the Ma Ying-jeou administration and is now deployed in northern parts of the country. Three squadrons, under Missile Command’s 601 Group, are deployed in Taishan and Sansia in New Taipei City, and Yangmei in Taoyuan County, Defense News reported.

With a range of about 650km, the subsonic HF-2E is at the heart of the national counterforce strategy and would be used to launch retaliatory strikes against military targets along China’s southeastern coast. Reports last year said the deployment was part of a NT$30 billion (US$1.02 billion) program codenamed Chichun, or “Lance Hawk.”

The Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) is a surface-to-surface cruise missile system developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) in Taiwan and based upon the earlier HF-2 anti-ship missile.

HF-2E missile will primarily be deployed operationally in ground-mobile launchers. The launcher vehicle will carry the HF-2E missiles in protective aluminum box launchers, with wings and control fins retracted, conceptually similar to the trailer-mounted mobile launchers for Tien Kung Sky Bow series surface-to-air missiles and HF-2 coastal defense missiles. The launchers will normally be based in hardened shelters at military installations, with deployment to remote, pre-surveyed launch sites during alert situations.