According to the United News Network in Taiwan, on December 14, the self-made submarine "Haikun" of the Taiwanese military, which was recently exposed for "lacking a ship's anchor when going to sea," has now been revealed to have another joke: "the hydraulic system needs to be manually relayed to steer." The media pointed out that the "Haikun" continues to be exposed to various bizarre situations, which inevitably lead to doubts from the outside world: what other problems does the "Haikun" still have not mentioned?

The "Naval Command" of Taiwan responded that the control system of the "Haikun" has multiple backup measures, including automatic, semi-automatic, and manual operations. The incident response was within the safe range. The manufacturer, Taiwan Shipbuilding Corporation (TSC), stated that all the defects of the submarine have been resolved one by one. At this stage, in order to maintain confidentiality and expedite testing, they will no longer respond individually to external speculations.

According to the information, during the second sea test on June 26, the hydraulic system of the "Haikun" failed completely, causing the X-shaped rudder to be unable to turn. Finally, the crew had to manually operate it in the "rudder room" near the tail rudder through a relay method to return to port. Two tugboats accompanying the "Haikun" also tightly controlled the bow of the submarine to influence its direction.

The submarine "Haikun" went to sea on November 27. Social Media

It is reported that the X-shaped rudder of the "Haikun" has a main system as well as multiple backup systems to deal with extreme situations where the hydraulic system fails completely. Usually, submarines are equipped with multiple independent hydraulic pumps, driven by different power sources or auxiliary diesel engines for safety. When the main system fails, it will immediately switch to the backup hydraulic circuit, and to ensure the safety of the backup hydraulic circuit, an additional backup pump power supply is also installed to ensure normal use. If all hydraulic power is really lost, the last resort is mechanical "manual assistance" operation.

On November 29, the magazine "Mirror" reported that the anchor machine system of the "Haikun" failed during testing in the dry dock. Therefore, the first five sea tests of the submarine did not have an anchor machine. The report accused the Taiwanese Navy, stating that the military knew about this but required TSC to conduct sea tests without anchors, violating relevant regulations. TSC also admitted that the situation of the "Haikun" lacking an anchor machine during sea tests was true.

In addition, the watertight doors of the "Haikun" have not completed the full system integration test, and it cannot ensure that each cabin can maintain watertight isolation under extreme pressure conditions. A source said that the Taiwanese Navy forced TSC to "test without an anchor," trying to create an illusion of the "Haikun" project being normal, which is "clearly against the law!"

Regarding the frequent problems with the "Haikun," the United News Network commented that now TSC has been slapped three times in a row and has decided to stop responding. This attitude may be hard to convince people. The commentary pointed out that Taiwan's first domestically built submarine is now surrounded by a heavy political atmosphere due to its high investment cost and the series of "big propaganda" by the ruling party, and it has been exposed in the open, making it a strange case in the history of the Taiwanese Navy.

The "Haikun" submarine with the hull number 711 is the first vessel of the "submarine self-construction" project. This project was initiated in 2015 and started construction in 2019. On September 28, 2023, the "launch and naming ceremony" was held at the Kaohsiung Shipyard, but the submarine was not submerged.

During the subsequent outfitting process, there were many reports about delays in delivery, missing parts, and other issues of important subsystem components on the submarine. Initially, the media claimed that the submarine would be ready for its first "sea test" in September last year, but both TSC and the "Naval Command" denied it at the time. It wasn't until June 17 this year that the first floating sea test was conducted.

Additionally, the media once revealed that the "3 to 4 floating tests" and "shallow to deep diving tests" should be completed before the end of September this year to meet the contract requirements for delivery in November. However, after completing the third floating test in July, the "Haikun" submarine entered the dock and stayed in port for maintenance and adjustment for more than four months, and only conducted the fourth and fifth floating tests on November 27 and 28, respectively.

On October 13, the "Naval Command" stated in a press release that two major systems of the "Haikun" were still not fully adjusted, namely the "main engine and power management system" and the "integrated comprehensive management system" (IPMS).

In early October, Guo Xi, the former consultant of the "Submarine Self-construction" project, once disclosed on a political commentary program that the system integration of the "Haikun" had not been completed at all. The IPMS system purchased from the UK was not just "not yet calibrated," but had already "turned red." He gave an example, stating that according to reports, the torpedo tubes provided by South Korea did not respond at all after receiving commands, and the cause of the failure could not be determined. If forced to dive, it might "result in casualties."

Guo Xi also criticized the current commander of the "Naval Command" of Taiwan, Tang Hua, saying that his understanding of submarines was "almost zero," yet he insisted on going his own way and ignoring others' professional advice. If this situation is not changed and continues like this, it is likely that the integration issue will not be resolved even by September next year.

This article is an exclusive contribution from Observer, and it is not allowed to be reprinted without permission.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7583539856022766080/

Statement: The article represents the views of the author.