Sous-marin de classe Hai Kun (Indigenous Defence Submarine)

Fiche

Pertinence pour les conflits

Ceci est la fiche unique du catalogue pour ce système. Il est pertinent pour le module ci-dessous ; le Force Atlas de chaque module montre comment il y est employé.

Opérateurs

Taiwan (Republic of China): Prototype in sea trials; not an in-service capability

Rôle sur le champ de bataille

Intended for sea denial in the waters and approaches around Taiwan.

Points forts

Submarines are among the hardest platforms to find and neutralise, and building them domestically after decades of being unable to buy them is a substantial industrial achievement with real deterrent signalling value.

Limites

The programme is slow, expensive and unproven: the prototype has been conducting sea trials rather than entering service, and schedules have moved repeatedly. Critics within the asymmetric-defence school argue the cost would buy far more denial capability in missiles, mines and small craft. Vigil records the trials as reported milestones and makes no claim about capability, timeline or fleet size.

Pertinence pour les campagnes

Dérivé : une organisation participant à ces campagnes porte une association d’équipement typée avec ce système. Ce n’est pas la même chose qu’un emploi documenté du système dans la campagne elle-même.

• Une pression soutenue sous le seuil En intensification depuis 2020

  via ROC Navy (Prospective, moderate confidence)

• Interdiction maritime coercitive — de la quarantaine au blocus Contingence évaluée

  via ROC Navy (Prospective, moderate confidence)

Identification visuelle

A conventional diesel-electric submarine with an X-form stern rudder arrangement — four angled control surfaces rather than the cruciform layout of the older boats Taiwan operates — and a slender sail set well forward. The X-stern is the distinguishing feature and is visible only out of the water.

Emploi documenté dans les conflits

Launched in September 2023 and engaged in harbour and sea trials since, with delivery repeatedly rescheduled; the boat has not entered operational service. It left on its 21st sea trial, the 15th with submerged testing, on 21 September 2026, having missed the November 2025 delivery deadline its builder attributed to testing delays. Follow-on hulls are funded in Taiwan's special defence budgets and are the subject of continuing legislative argument. Vigil records trials and budget decisions as reported milestones and makes no claim about capability, timeline or eventual fleet size — this is the record in the Taiwanese catalogue where the gap between programme announcement and delivered capability is widest, and the confidence grade says so.

Opérateurs par composante et par service

• ROC Navy Prospective

Reported & historical formation associations

• ROC Navy Fleet Command Prospective · moderate confidence

  Programme in trials; not an in-service capability claim.