The former head of Taiwan military’s top research unit has disclosed in a recently published memoir that the nation’s domestically developed supersonic land-attack cruise missile has a range of 1,000 kilometers, meaning it could reach as far as China’s capital Beijing.
Retired Rear Admiral Kung Chia-cheng (???), a former president of the state-run weapons developer National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology (NCSIST), made the claim in a memoir published by Academia Sinica, the top research institution in Taiwan, last month.
The domestic cruise missile was developed under the Yun Feng (??, Cloud Peak) project codenamed W-99, according to Kung in his memoir. The missile can exceed Mach 3 and has excellent penetration capability as it can reach targets vertically.
The missile’s speed ensures that it is not easily intercepted, and at the time of the missile’s development, under former President Lee Teng-hui (???), only the United States and Russia were developing similar missiles, Kung said.
Taiwan’s military had once almost called off the project as it did not believe in NCSIST’s ability to build cruise missiles, according to Kung.
Fortunately, Lee’s successor Chen Shui-bian (???) had conducted an inspection of NCSIST during his presidency, and the institution briefed the president and received approval to continue the project, he added.
Kung is reportedly the first NCSIST member directly involved in the development of the domestic supersonic cruise missile system to publicly confirm it has a range as great as 1,000km.
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (???) made a similar claim about the range of the domestic cruise missiles during his online keynote speech for the Taiwanus.net forum in June this year.
“Taiwan will not invade China, but China should take Taiwan’s ability to attack Beijing into consideration before launching an invasion,” You said.
He also disclosed that such missiles have officially entered mass production.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of National Defense refused to comment on Kung’s remarks. NCSIST also said it had no comment on the “personal view” of an individual.
Kung served as NCSIST chief from December 2003 to December 2007. During that period, the institution developed some of the nation’s top long-range missiles, including the Hsiung Feng II (HF-2) and Hsiung Feng III (HF-3) anti-ship missiles.
NCSIST is Taiwan’s main research and development hub for domestically produced weapons.
It is responsible for the development, manufacture, and sales of defense technology and weapons, and domestic and international cooperation in technology, information exchange, and promotion.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel