In news from and about Taiwan this morning,

Navy Chief of Staff Qiu Chun-rong has admitted that the first domestically
built submarine prototype willl likely miss the date that sea trials were
scheduled to begin.

The Ministry of National Defense's timeline for the Narwhal to carry out sea
trials was supposed to begin in April and be completed by late September.

However, Qiu says the Navy is currently still working on improvements and
focusing on reaching the "technology readiness level" required for the vessel
to carry out sea trials.

Defense Minister Wellington Koo last week told lawmakers that no dates had
been confirmed for when the Narwhal indigenous submarine prototype would
begin its sea acceptance tests.

That statement followed reports of potential testing delays due to voltage
surges from a land-based power supply used in testing causing some components
in the submarine to fail.

Shipbuilder C-S-B-C was scheduled to the delivery the submarine to the Navy
before the end of last year.

However, the scheduled delivery has now pushed back to November this year.

Lawmakers have frozen 2-billion N-T of the funding proposed for the submarine
program with the proviso that the funds will only be unfrozen after the
Narwhal prototype passes sea trials.