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Taiwan’s first domestically built submarine prototype, the Narwhal, successfully completed its first deep-water dive on Thursday, marking a major milestone in the Navy’s shipbuilding history. Building on that momentum, the Navy wasted no time in pressing ahead with further trials. On Friday, the submarine put to sea once again, departing the harbor an hour earlier than during the previous two sea trials earlier this week. Military experts interpret the accelerated schedule as a strong indication that Thursday’s deep-water submerged test was highly successful. As a result, the Narwhal is expected to proceed to even deeper waters in the next phase of testing, where more advanced submerged operations will be conducted. These ongoing trials are seen as a crucial step toward its planned delivery to the Navy in June.

Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine prototype, the Narwhal, is at Kaohsiung Harbor, escorted by Marine Corps assault boats and CSBC workboats. It’s heading out again after successfully completing its first submerged tests.

Military enthusiasts raised red banners and waved flags to celebrate the milestone and cheer the testing team on. The Narwhal is to complete a third round of tests this week. One military enthusiast from Tainan has followed the Narwhal’s activities in person every day.

Military enthusiast
I’m so happy. It looks like everything’s going well. It’s especially apparent when it’s navigating, its turns are so slick, so smooth.

The Narwhal completed the first submerged tests at 10 nautical miles off the coast of Zuoying, diving to a depth of 50m for tests on sonar, propulsion and other systems. To follow up on this success, the Navy is conducting more tests at 100m below sea level, including the submarine’s quietness and water pressure resistance.

Chi Tung-yun
Military expert
As things currently stand, it seems that yesterday’s tests were all very successful, so today more, relevant tests will be done at a greater depth, to see how the submarine’s soldering works will fare under all the stress and pressure under water, whether it will produce sounds and how the submarine will react.

In the five years since construction began on the Narwhal, the project has received technical support from many countries, including the US, the UK and South Korea. The military expert says that submerged tests at deep waters will determine whether the prototype has a successfully integrated system.

Chi Tung-yun
Military expert
When a submarine is at sea and undertaking combat patrols, it detects the enemy through its sonar system. Its combat system then processes the data and applies the necessary parameters, which are then transmitted to the torpedo tubes. The Mark 48 heavyweight wire-guided torpedo will only be launched after this process is completed, and so system integration is a very important hurdle to pass.

After the Narwhal completes deep-water submerged tests, it will get even closer to the target of delivery by June. The CSBC says it will run the tests progressively until then.

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