The ''Kang Ding''-class frigate is based on the French design which were built by

DCNS DCNS may refer to: * Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (Australia) * Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (India) * Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (Pakistan) * Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (United Kingdom), Royal Navy * Naval Group Naval Group is a ma ...

for

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

Background and design

As the ROC (Taiwan)'s defensive stance is aimed towards the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself ...

, the

ROC Navy The Republic of China Navy (ROCN; ), also called the ROC Navy and colloquially the Taiwan Navy, is the maritime branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces (ROCAF). The service was formerly commonly just called the Chinese Navy during World W ...

is constantly seeking to upgrade its anti-submarine warfare capabilities. The US$1.75 billion agreement with France in the early 1990s was an example of this procurement strategy: the six ships are configured for both

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are typi ...

(ASW) and surface attack. The

Exocet The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guillot, then the technical directo ...

anti-ship missile was replaced by Taiwan-developed

Hsiung Feng II The Hsiung Feng II (HF-2; , "Brave Wind II") is an anti-ship missile system developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) in Taiwan. The HF-2 is designed to be deployed aboard ships or at facilities on land. ...

missile and the

anti-air warfare Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

(AAW) weapon is the

Sea Chaparral The MIM-72A/M48 Chaparral is an American-made self-propelled surface-to-air missile system based on the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile system. The launcher is based on the M113 family of vehicles. It entered service with the United States ...

. The main gun is an

Oto Melara 76 mm The OTO Melara 76 mm gun, marketed as the OTO 76/62 Gun Mount, is a naval autocannon built and designed by the Italian defence company OTO Melara. It is based on the OTO Melara 76/62C and evolved toward 76/62 SR and 76/62 Strales. The sys ...

/62 Mk 75 gun, similar to its Singaporean counterparts, the s. Some problems in the integration of Taiwanese and French systems had been reported. The frigate carries a single

Sikorsky S-70 The Sikorsky S-70 is an American medium transport/utility helicopter family manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. It was developed for the United States Army in the 1970s, winning a competition to be designated the UH-60 Black Hawk and spawning ...

C(M)-1/2 ASW helicopter. The Sea Chaparral SAM system is considered inadequate for defense against aircraft and anti-ship missiles, so the ROCN plans to upgrade its air-defense capabilities with the indigenous

TC-2N The Sky Sword II ( zh, t=天劍二, Tien Chien II), or TC-2, is a Taiwanese medium-range, hypersonic, radar guided air-to-air missile. It has an inertial navigation system, a data-link for mid-course guidance and active radar homing for term ...

in 2020. The

AMRAAM The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM (pronounced ), is an American beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It is 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter, and employ ...

-class missiles will be quad-packed in a

vertical launch system A vertical launching system (VLS) is an advanced system for holding and firing missiles on mobile naval platforms, such as surface ships and submarines. Each vertical launch system consists of a number of ''cells'', which can hold one or mo ...

for future ROCN surface combatants, but a less-risky alternative arrangement of above-deck, fixed oblique launchers is seen as more likely for upgrading these French-built frigates. In 2021 it was reported that Taiwan would upgrade the frigates of this class with new air defence and combat systems. The upgrades were to begin in 2022 and would follow on the modernization of the ships' decoy launching systems under a contract awarded in 2020. The class's maximum speed is with a maximum range of . The class's Mk 75 main guns have been upgraded and have an improved firing rate of 100 rounds a minute.

Ships in class

Taiwan frigate scandal

The Taiwan frigate deal was a huge political scandal, both in Taiwan and France. Eight people involved in the contract died in unusual and possibly suspicious circumstances. Arms dealer Andrew Wang fled Taiwan to the UK after the body of presumptive

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

Captain Yin Ching-feng was found floating in the sea. In 2001 Swiss authorities froze accounts held by Andrew Wang and family in connection to the Taiwan frigate scandal. In 2003, the Taiwanese Navy sued

Thomson-CSF Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence (military), defence sectors of the market. Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merge ...

(Thales) to recover alleged $590 million in

kickbacks A kickback is a form of negotiated bribery in which a commission is paid to the bribe-taker in exchange for services rendered. Generally speaking, the remuneration (money, goods, or services handed over) is negotiated ahead of time. The kickback ...

, paid to French and Taiwanese officials to grease the 1991 ''La Fayette'' deal. The money was deposited in

Swiss banks Banking in Switzerland dates to the early eighteenth century through Switzerland's merchant trade and has, over the centuries, grown into a complex, regulated, and international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland, along wit ...

, and under the corruption investigation, Swiss authorities froze approx. $730 million in over 60 accounts. In June 2007 the Swiss authority returned $34 million from frozen accounts to Taiwan, with additional funds pending. Andrew Wang died in the UK in 2015 and collection efforts continued against his family. In February 2021, the

Federal Department of Justice and Police The Federal Department of Justice and Police (german: Eidgenössisches Justiz- und Polizeidepartement, french: Département fédéral de justice et police, it, Dipartimento federale di giustizia e polizia, rm, ) is one of the seven departmen ...

said that Switzerland will restitute nearly US$266 million to Taiwan.

References

{{Reflist Frigate classes Stealth ships Frigates of the Republic of China Navy