Taiwan announced today that its first domestically produced submarine, Hai Kun or Narwhal, has begun the final stages of Harbor Acceptance Testing (HAT) for acceptance into the Taiwanese Navy.
The Hai Kun was escorted from Jong Shyn floating dock Number 8 in a three-stage procedure, ending with the launch into the water.
CSBC Corp., the maker of the sub, said the first phase was to tow it aboard the floating dock from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. local time; the second involved detaching it from the floating dock and lasted from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The third and final took place from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm and consisted of towing the vessel into the dock and later the CSBC dock.
This launch allowed the world to see the appearance of the submarine, along with various features, such as torpedo tubes and a towed sonar array.
