Staff writer, with CNAThe navy yesterday said that it has commissioned a Dutch company to assist in a program to upgrade its two submarines bought from the Netherlands in the 1980s, but stressed that the program is not related to one aimed at having Taiwan build its own submarines. “This will also be helpful for the program to build home-grown submarines,” the article said. CSBC Co and the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology in March signed a memorandum of understanding with the navy to jointly build submarines. According to the schedule, the domestically built submarines are to be completed in eight years and should be formally commissioned into service within a decade, CSBC has said. The navy has four submarines in its fleet: two bought from the US in the 1970s and the two from the Netherlands, bought in the 1980s.

Source: Taipei Times May 31, 2017 15:56 UTC