La fiche Ce qu’est ce système, d’où il vient, qui le met en œuvre et pour quels modules de Vigil il est pertinent — avec les éléments sur lesquels repose chacun de ces points.
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.
Rôle sur le champ de bataille
Rapid mining of coastal approaches. Mines are the cheapest way to make water expensive to cross, and a small automated minelayer is the cheapest way to put them there quickly. The role is counter-amphibious in the most direct sense available to a defender.
Points forts
Domestically designed and built, so the programme depends on no foreign export decision. The vessels are small, individually inexpensive and numerous enough to be lost without losing the capability — which is the asymmetric argument applied to shipbuilding rather than to missiles. Automated laying gear compresses the time a vessel is exposed. The Navy is contracted to roughly double the class by the end of 2026.
Limites
Mining is a capability with a demanding precondition: it has to be done before or during the thing it is meant to stop, in water the other side is contesting, by small lightly armed vessels. Specialist analysis of Taiwan's mine warfare argues the gap between the published concept and the demonstrated capability remains substantial — a purpose-built minelayer force is a necessary component and not the same thing as an ability to lay a barrier under fire. Stockpiles of the mines themselves, and the doctrine and legal process for authorising their use, are not public and are not estimated here.
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 (Documented, high confidence)
- Interdiction maritime coercitive — de la quarantaine au blocus Contingence évaluée
via ROC Navy (Documented, high confidence)
Identification visuelle
A very small warship of a few hundred tonnes with a low, flat quarterdeck running almost to the waterline — the working deck the laying gear discharges from — and a light gun forward. The proportions are closer to a fast patrol boat than to a conventional naval auxiliary.
Emploi documenté dans les conflits
Four vessels were commissioned in January 2022 as the Navy's first purpose-built minelayers. In March 2025 the Navy sought a contractor for six more, and in April 2025 awarded the contract, with all six to be completed by the end of December 2026 — bringing the class to ten. The programme has been presented by Taiwan's defence ministry as part of its area-denial development and appears in its 2025 defence reporting on that basis.
Opérateurs par composante et par service
- ROC Navy Documenté
Formations documentées
- ROC Navy Fleet Command Documenté · confiance élevée
Évalué au — 2026-09 Dernière revue — 2026-09-09