US to test 5 unmanned underwater vessels in Taiwan to counter China
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With clandestine mine-laying capability, the unmanned underwater vessels will be equipped with missile tubes to provide them with speed and range, According to US Navy.
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Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael M. Gilday at a Pentagon press briefing, in Washington, DC on April 2, 2020 (Department of Defense)
During a congressional hearing for the US House Armed Services Committee on Friday, US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday confirmed that five additional unmanned underwater vessels (UUV) with clandestine mine-laying capability will start testing by the US to counter China in the Taiwan Strait, naming it a "game changer".
"[O]ur first large undersea vessel is in the water right now off the coast of California in testing. That testing is going fairly well. There'll be five more additional UUVs that follow that one. That platform has a clandestine mine-laying capability, and that will be a game changer," Gilday said.
Plans are to equip the vessels with missile tubes to provide them with speed and range.
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This follows calls by China earlier this month on the US to halt sales of arms to Taiwan and stop creating tensions and provocations in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwanese media reported that 25 giant US weapons manufacturers will visit the island in early May, including China-sanctioned Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies, which aims to discuss the joint production of arms and ammunition as the United States continues its hyper-militarization of countries in the vicinity of China.
Amid skyrocketing tensions, and after US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen during her stop in the US, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that the Hudson Institute and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library have been sanctioned for providing Tsai "a platform and convenience to engage in separatist activities" and "seriously violating the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques."
