Taiwan conducts test launch of supersonic anti-ship missile from coast guard catamaran

Taiwan's Anping-class coast guard cutter Qijin launched a locally produced supersonic Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile during a joint precision-fire exercise on September 18. The missile struck a decommissioned Republic of China Navy frigate from about 50 nautical miles away, while a separate coast guard unit fired a Hsiung Feng II during the same exercise. Taiwan designed all 12 Anping-class patrol catamarans to accept naval weapons during wartime, allowing the coast guard fleet to add distributed surface-strike capacity without permanently carrying missiles in peacetime.