Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng is standing by and defending the estimated
costs of the Indigenous Defense Submarine.

He says claims being made by some local media outlets that the cost per
vessel would soar are "unfair."

Chiu's comments come in the wake of reports quoting unnamed naval
officials... who say the cost of building seven vessels over 15 years will
surpass 280 billion N-T.

That's an average cost of around 40-billion N-T per submarine.

That would make the new subs far more expensive than the prototype... which
cost around 31.2-billion N-T to build.

That submarine is currently undergoing the final round of its harbor
acceptance tests.

The defense minister says the 280-billion N-T being talked about is just an
estimate, as the full budget proposal had not yet been submitted.

Chiu also told lawmakers that the defense ministry plans to add "certain
equipment" on the six other submarines, since it was felt the prototype
vessel was "not necessarily sufficiently equipped."

The defene minister added that the figures being reported by the local media
are based on an "unfair" calculation method.