An Survey of Taiwan’s Defense Industry

choi

Wendell Minnick, Chinese Threat, US Hesitance Drive Taiwan's Munitions Push. Defense News, July 27, 2014.
www.defensenews.com/article/2014 ... an-s-Munitions-Push

My comment:
(a) The report does not say anything new. At best, it is an update. However, the significance is Defense News has placed almost all its contents behind the pay wall. So this is the first time I read an report for free from Defense News.
(b) 萬劍 “allow Taiwan to take any fight with China ‘downtown,’ said one former US defense official.”

I am clueless about what “downtown” means. Can it be China’s center(s)?  That is, inland?

© “Less advanced weapons and munitions are produced by the Manufacturing and Production Center (MPC) 生產製造中心  under the Armaments Bureau (國防部) 軍備局. For example, MPC’s 205 Arsenal 第205廠 produces rifles and hand­guns, such as the new T93 sniper rifle, while its 202 Arsenal 第202廠 produces large-caliber guns such as artillery, mortars, and 40mm grenade launchers.


(d) “the road-mobile Thunder 2000 (Ray Ting) artillery multiple launch rocket system * * The AMLRS can carry one container of 20 Mk15 (15-kilometer range) 117mm rockets, two containers of nine Mk30 (30-kilometer range) 180mm rockets, or two containers of six Mk45 230mm rockets”
(i) 雷霆2000
(ii) Thunderbolt-2000
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt-2000

In this Wiki page, the heading “Munitions” describes: “The LT/RT-2000 uses three types of munitions: Mk15 (60 rounds, 3 pods of 20 round each, 15 km range), Mk30 (27 rounds, 3 pods of 9 rounds each, 30 km range) and Mk45 (12 rounds, 2 pods of 6 rounds each, 45 km range). all three seem to be unique to 雷霆2000.
(iii) list of United States Navy Guided Missile Launching Systems
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Navy_Guided_Missile_Launching_Systems

does not have Mk15 or Mk30, but does have Mk45.
(iv)
(A) Norman Friedman, The Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapon Systems. Naval Institute Press, 2006 at page xxxix (or 39 in the preface; [heading] Acronyms and Abbreviations); at page xlvi (or 46; "Mk[:] Mark ([followed by] number, for designation")

The following URL shows page xxxix (you have to scroll down for page xlvi).
books.google.com/books?id=4S3h8j_NEmkC&pg=PR39&lpg=PR39&dq=mk+missile+launch+acronym&source=bl&ots=hJRwPUY270&sig=nMWfz3WzQqKpZeJSQt2U_MPdhCU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KYPZU6vFLI-2yATBgYGYDA&ved=0CEwQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=mk%20missile%20launch%20acronym&f=false
(B) mark (designation)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_(designation)
(The concept shares some similarities with * * * the 1.0+ (1.1, 1.12, 2.0, 3.0, etc.) Software versioning convention)

(e) “12 Jing Chiang-class corvettes”
(i) Actually
Jing Chiang-class patrol ship  錦江級巡邏艦
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/錦江級巡邏艦
(table: 排水量 500噸+, 滿載排水量 720噸+; commissioned 1994-2000: all in service)
(ii) corvette
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvette
(smaller than a frigate (2,000+ tons) and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft (500 tons or less))
(iii) displacement (ship)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_(ship)
(Seawater is denser than fresh water. “Consider a 100-ton ship passing from a saltwater sea into a freshwater river. It always displaces exactly 100 tons of water, but it has to displace a greater volume of fresh water to amount to 100 tons. Therefore it would sit slightly lower in the water in the freshwater river than it would in the saltwater sea”)
-