Source: Huaxia Jingwei.com
An accident occurred during the Taiwan Army's "Thunder 2000" rocket launcher exercise Picture source Taiwan media screenshot
On the morning of June 20, when the Taiwan Army was conducting live ammunition firing during the Army's annual Thunder exercise at Jiupeng Base in Pingtung, a "Thunder 2000" The rocket launcher failed to successfully fire and exploded directly in the launch box, causing the entire vehicle to be blown up and causing a fire. Fortunately, no casualties were caused. The Taiwan military suspended the exercise and investigated the cause of the accident. Although an earthquake occurred in Hualien that day, it is not possible to confirm at this stage whether the explosion was related to the earthquake.
It is understood that the "Thunder 2000" multiple rocket launcher system was independently developed by Taiwan's "Zhongshan Institute of Science" in 1997. It was put into production in 2010 and delivered to the Taiwan Army in 2012. It has powerful firepower and is mainly used in anti-landing operations to destroy enemy forces at sea and on the beach. It has a range of up to 45 kilometers and can launch all rockets within 1 minute, covering an area of about 200,000 square meters.
Since the " Thunder 2000" is an automated design, when the new ammunition box is loaded, the fire control computer can automatically identify the type of rocket and calculate the shooting parameters. Therefore, military expert Wang Yunfei bluntly stated in an interview with Hong Kong media "Ta Kung Pao" that rocket launchers and rockets are generally not prone to accidents. However, in this accident, the rocket launcher was not launched. It did not advance at the moment of ignition and exploded directly in the launch tube. This shows the quality. There is a problem.
Wang Yunfei said that improper operation and insufficient training of the Taiwan military are also one of the important reasons, reflecting that there are many loopholes in the quality of the Taiwan military's weapons and equipment and the quality of its troop training. The daily storage and inspection of rockets are also very important. If inspections are strengthened at ordinary times, they may not explode.
Taiwan built its own "Yushan Ship". Image source: Taiwan's "United Daily News"
Coincidentally, misfortunes never come singly. The Taiwan military's self-made weapons and equipment have recently experienced major problems one after another. On June 14, the Taiwan Navy's first 10,000-ton amphibious dock transport ship "Yushan Ship" suffered a large amount of water in the rear section of the cabin during testing. The "Yushan Ship" is an important part of the DPP authorities' " self-made submarine " For one of the projects, Tsai Ing-wen once declared that "this is a 'milestone' for Taiwan's self-made submarines." Unexpectedly, a water intrusion incident occurred. Netizens on the island not only ridiculed "the transport ship turned into a submarine."
Last year, a F-16V fighter aircraft at the Hualien Air Force Base was injured by shell fragments fired from its own 20cm Vulcan cannon while performing an aerial cannon shooting project. At that time, experts analyzed that the quality of the Taiwan military's self-produced artillery shells may be poor, and the warhead broke when it was fired, causing fragments to scratch the fuselage.
In 2019, Taiwan's self-developed "Clouded Leopard" armored vehicle was revealed to have more than 20 performance defects, and was jokingly called a "sick cat" by netizens on the island. As a result, when a "Clouded Leopard" armored vehicle participated in an exercise last year, it stalled due to surging water and was unable to move.
In addition, Taiwan's self-produced "Haijian-2" anti-aircraft missiles and "Hsiung Feng-3" anti-ship missiles have experienced problems such as miss-targeting, mis-firing, and launch failures on many occasions.
These accidents are by no means accidental. They have repeatedly highlighted the worrying quality of Taiwan’s self-produced weapons!
According to a Korean media report on June 7, South Korea's SI Company assisted the Taiwan military in "self-building submarines" and was suspected of leaking technical documents of the South Korean Navy's new 3,000-ton submarine to the Taiwan Shipbuilding Company. The "Self-Built Submarine Case" has also seen many scandals involving Taiwanese naval consultants involved in business and discrepancy in engine specifications.
The "Thunder 2000" rocket launcher system is also controversial. Zhu Suiyi commented in Ta Kung Pao that the positioning director and inertial navigation device (laser gyroscope) of the "Thunder 2000" rocket launcher system only meet commercial standards and do not meet military specifications. The outside world has therefore questioned that the R&D capabilities of the island's "Chinese Academy of Sciences" have not improved with the lifting of the ban on higher-precision components.
In addition, it is reported that in order to save costs, the Taiwan military has transformed the retired "Worker Bee Type 6" rocket into the current "Thunder 2000" rocket launcher as a practice projectile for army training. Whether this incident is related to "conversion of old bombs into new bombs" or "aging of equipment" remains to be further investigated.
Today, the mainland's third aircraft carrier "Fujian Ship" has been launched, but the Taiwan Army's "Yushan Ship" accidentally entered the water. This has also caused a lot of discussion among netizens on the island, ridiculing the so-called "Taiwan quality" and "Taiwan value." Self-explosion!", "Others' aircraft carriers are launched into the water, but our rocket cars eat dirt"... A large number of netizens are dissatisfied with the DPP politicians' behavior of suppressing dissidents, saying bluntly, "Talk guns are safer than artillery , at least they won't shoot indiscriminately! Self-explosion!"
However, some netizens believe that "as long as people are fine"...
Taiwan military accidents have occurred frequently in recent years. The reason is that the DPP authorities "reject reunification with force" and frequently hold military exercises, and the officers and soldiers are exhausted and safety Naturally, there will be a cliff-like decline; allocating huge budgets to build self-made weapons is destined to be "empty". [Source: China Jingwei Network]
