A keel laying ceremony was held on April 17 at Taiwanese shipbuilder Lungteh Shipbuilding for the 3rd and 4th Republic of China Navy (ROCN) Min Jiang-class rapid minelayers ships. Work on the second one is also under way at the company’s facilities in Yilan County. Only four of these vessels are known to have been ordered by the RoCN. The four mine laying ship are expected to be completed in 2021, which will greatly enhance Taiwan’s offensive mine fighting capacity and effectively counter the threat of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
Each of these minelayers will be 41 m long, 8.8 m wide, have a hull draught of 1.7 m, and a full-load displacement of 347 tonnes. Each of the vessels will be capable of reaching a top speed of 14 kt, have a range of 2,000 n miles, and be armed with a 20mm T75 gun mount (as main gun) and two T74 7.62 mm machine guns. the mine layer ships were designed to face down an attack by amphibious vehicles trying to land in Taiwan, and would be equipped with a more precise automatic mine laying system.
