October 29,2008:
Taiwan officially announced it
will be producing 300 of the new Hsiung Feng 2E cruise missiles. The 19 foot
long missile weighs a ton (with a 450 pound warhead) and has a top speed of 800
kilometers an hour. Max range is 600 kilometers. It uses inertial and GPS
guidance.
Taiwan tends
to develop its new weapons quietly, and then suddenly reveal them. The Hsiung
Feng 2E suddenly began showing up in military parades recently, with little
official comment. The Hsiung Feng 2E was developed from the Hsiung Feng 2
anti-ship missile. This was a smaller weapon (.685 ton), with a range of 160
kilometers. It entered service in the early 1990s, and by the late 1990s,
developers were working on turning it into a cruise missile. The Hsiung Feng 2E
can be launched from ships or from land and can threaten Chinese targets
several hundred kilometers inland.