Taiwan’s military has publicly confirmed for the first time the existence of the “Yun Feng” (Cloud Peak) medium-range surface-to-surface missile, which has been under development since the 1990s.
Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (???) mentioned the missile during a joint hearing of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee and Finance Committee on a proposed special budget of NT$240 billion to boost Taiwan’s missile arsenal.
Asked about the development and capabilities of the Yun Feng missile by opposition KMT lawmaker Johnny Chiang (???), Chiu was unwilling to reveal any details, saying only that the military is still “working on it.”
It was the first time the Ministry of National Defense publicly acknowledged the existence of the missile, which is said to have a range of up to 1,500 kilometers.
The Yun Feng missile has reportedly been under development since the 1990s and is designed to strike land-based targets inside China, according to local and foreign media reports.
Capable of hitting strategic targets such as airports, harbors and command centers in inland China, the Yun Feng missile is a key part of Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare plan to erode China’s combat capabilities, said Su Tzu-Yun(???), a senior researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
Su said the Chinese military’s biggest threat to Taiwan is its air force, and having the ability to attack China’s air bases and disrupt its planned sorties in a conflict would substantially boost Taiwan’s ability to defend itself.
Local media speculated last year that the Yun Feng missile was tested in April 2020, but the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwan’s state-owned weapon systems development institution, refused to comment on the reports.
Though Chiang asked about the Yun Feng missile at the hearing, it is not covered under the proposed NT$240 billion special budget but rather under a secret military budget.
The NT$240 billion budget would go to the development and production of other missiles. About 64 percent would be allocated to anti-ship missiles, 18 percent to anti-air missiles and 18 percent to other types of missiles.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel