Taiwanese Navy held keel-laying ceremony of second local-made minelayer ship.

According to information released by the Focus Taiwan website on 4 August 2020, a keel-laying ceremony was held by the Taiwanese Navy for the new second local-made of four minelayer ships that are part of the Taiwanese government's indigenous shipbuilding project.
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New local-made minelayer for Taiwanese Navy. (Picture source TaiwanMinistry of National Defense)

Citing Asian Military Review, A competitive tender was held in October 2018, with the Yilan-based Lung Teh Shipbuilding securing the contract and commencing construction of the first hull at its Yard No.2 in Dongshan Township from mid-2019.

According to a statement released by the  Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense, The minelayer project was developed based on the enemy threat and combat needs after integrating the military's mine-laying combat plans. It will make it easier to prevent enemy vessels from sailing near Taiwan.

According to technical reports published by Taiwanese military experts, the new minelayer has a length of 41 meters, 8.8 meters wide, 3.2 meters tall above the waterline, and will displace approximately 347 tonnes at full load. It is expected to be capable of a top speed of 25km/h (14 knots) and operate out to distances of 12,222 km (1,200 nautical miles).

The new combat ship is equipped with a local-made automatic minelaying system which will carry up to 100 mines. They will also be armed with T74 general-purpose machine guns and T75 light machine guns for self-defense.