The record What this system is, where it comes from, who operates it and which of Vigil’s modules it is relevant to — with the evidence each of those rests on.
Record
Conflict relevance
This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.
Battlefield role
Anti-ship and, in the improved subclass, air-defence missile carriage from a small and comparatively survivable platform operating in home waters.
Strengths
Considerable missile armament on a small, fast hull that is cheap enough to build in numbers and hard to find and target comprehensively. Domestically built, insulating the programme from foreign supply risk.
Limitations
Limited endurance, seakeeping and self-defence depth compared with larger combatants, and no capability outside home waters. It is a denial platform, not a general-purpose warship, and its value depends on being numerous — which depends on sustained budget commitment through a divided legislature.
Campaign relevance
Derived: a participant organisation in these campaigns carries a typed equipment association with this system. That is not the same as documented use of the system in the campaign itself.
- Sustained pressure below the threshold Intensifying since 2020
via ROC Navy (Documented, high confidence)
- Coercive maritime interdiction — quarantine to blockade Assessed contingency
via ROC Navy (Documented, high confidence)
Visual identification
A small angular catamaran — twin hulls joined by a broad deck, which is unusual for a warship and is the single most recognisable feature. Faceted superstructure, a light gun forward and banks of angled missile canisters on the after deck. Nothing else in the strait looks like it.
Documented conflict use
Commissioned progressively since the lead ship entered service in 2014, with the improved subclass following from 2021 and further hulls funded in Taiwan's special defence budgets. The class appears in Taiwan's announced exercises, including dispersal drills in which vessels operate from commercial harbours rather than naval bases — a practice Taiwan publicises deliberately. Vigil records commissionings and announced exercises and publishes no hull counts in service, dispositions or basing.
Branch & service operators
- ROC Navy Documented
Documented formations
- ROC Navy Fleet Command Documented · high confidence
Assessed as of — 2026-07 Last reviewed — 2026-09-09