Taiwan’s first locally built submarine faced new doubts over whether the vessel could meet a November delivery deadline to the island’s navy as it had yet to begin long-awaited sea trials, with a new schedule yet to be confirmed.
The Hai Kun, or Narwhal, part of Taiwan’s Indigenous Defence Submarine (IDS) programme, had originally been slated to begin Sea Acceptance Tests (SAT) in April. But there had been no sign of progress by the end of the month, despite earlier pledges from the military that testing would proceed on schedule.
