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:
Does anyone realize how close this could have been to WW III?
What if that ‘mistaken’ firing hit a Chinese warship and sunk it, instead? In retaliation, the Chin Jiang and its crew would be at the bottom of the ocean – China would not sit around wondering if it was an accident or not. At the same time, China would have put its nuclear missile fleet on alert. Which would have automatically resulted in the Pentagon raising the U.S. strategic capability to DEFCON 3 or 2. Which would have caused the Russians to raise the readiness of their strategic nuclear forces.
It’s not like anyone has to twitch or sneeze at this point. Something as innocuous as a nuclear-armed submarine’s radio going out is enough to make the captain think the party has already started. Subs don’t surface to check on the situation – they either let the missiles fly or they don’t. This all assumes Taiwan wouldn’t have over-reacted to the Chinese retaliatory sinking, which is a very, very weak assumption.
I remember reading about it when it happened and thinking “That could have been it…” – This idiot needs to be made an example of, immediately!