Taiwan’s Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missile
A supersonic Hsiung Feng III (Brave Wind) anti-ship missile, which was mistakenly launched by the Taiwan Navy, struck a Taiwanese fishing boat, killed the captain and wounded three other people on the board.
The 500-ton PGG-610 Chin Jiang fired the missile, with a live warhead, by accident on July 1 during a missile exercise in Zuoying naval port in the southern city of Kaohsiung. According to a source in the Ministry of National Defense (MND), who spoke on condition of anonymity, an enlistee mistakenly changed the simulation mode to combat mode, violating the standard procedure, and this was the cause of the tragedy.
‘During the firing process he [the enlistee] gave it [the missile] a simulated target 40 nautical miles (74 kilometers) northwest of Zuoying and struck a fishing boat southeast of Penghu Island,’ the MND source said.
He also was surprised by the success of the missile: ‘It was very efficient. The fishing boat was made of carbon fiber with a low cross section and yet the missile did its job.’
Fortunately, the missile didn’t cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait and didn’t threaten China. Nowadays, the situation in the South China Sea is very tense. The consequences of this incident could be much more complicated if the missile crossed the median line.
Hsiung Feng III anti ship missile test Taiwan RoC Navy:
