Taiwan Shows Off Sea Mines
Taiwan Navy Sending China a Message
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20 March 2025 (Wednesday)
Taiwan Shows Off Sea Mines
Taiwan Navy Sending China a Message
By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德
TAIPEI - On 19 March, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) released four new photographs for the public illustrating the navy’s capabilities at laying sea mines.
Farther below are photographs I took on the FMLB-1 on 10 November 2022 at Kaohsiung Harbor.
Taiwan’s Navy has four Min Jiang-class minelayers built by Lung Teh Shipbuilding (Yilan County Shipyard). FMLB stands for Fast Mine Laying Boat.
Each vessel displaces 347 tons at full load, with a maximum speed of 14 knots. Length is 41m, width is 8.8m and draft is 1.7m.
The vessels have a precision automatic mine laying system. Each is equipped with 1x T-75S 20mm cannon and 2x T-74 (FN MAG) 7.62mm machine guns (T=Taiwan Made/205th Arsenal, Materiel Production Center, Armaments Bureau).
The first (FMLB-1) was launched in August 2020, second in September 2021, the third and fourth in December 2021.
All photographs are available for free to my subscribers who are writing books, papers, presentations, so long as you cite source (MND or Myself).