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 These are very capable ships, with particularly strong fleet AAW and command & control capabilities. Taiwan also acquired the Kidds at a considerable bargain, with the hulls sold at near scrap prices (5% of original USN acquisition cost). Total program cost amounted to only about US$690 million/NT$24.1 billion (complete with reactivation, weapons and equipment, training, and initial logistics support), roughly equivalent to just 40% more than buying one new-built PFG-2 (FFG-7 derivative) frigate with categorically inferior capabilities and far less operational flexibility. The four Kidds will replace the seven WJ-3 modernized Gearing FRAM I destroyers of World War II construction, the last of which was retired from ROC Navy service on 11/26/2005. The Kidd purchase was approved in 5/2003, only after surviving the most intense parliamentary battles (largely fueled by partisan politics and misinformed opinion) over a defense procurement project up to that time. Perhaps the most ironic legacy of the KH-7 program was that the difficulty this basically straight forward Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program encountered with the Pan-Blue opposition coalition should have served as a wake-up call to Taiwan's government in the way it handled defense spending, particularly as the issue could plague major weapons acquisition projects such as the Special Budget to purchase diesel-electric submarines, P-3C ASW/maritime patrol aircraft, and PAC-3 missile systems. In late-2002, the Kidd program was already a most alarming indicator of the deteriorating partisan dynamics in the Legislative Yuan and a harbinger of the bitterly divisive, politically-charged debate over defense spending to come. It is indeed unfortunate that neither the Ministry of National Defense (MND) nor the Chen Shui-Bian Government heeded the lessons of the Kidd program seriously, despite the advice of experts.
The RCNS Keelung is seen here at the ROCN commissioning ceremony on 12/17/2005 at Keelung harbor, alongside sister RCNS Suao. Both ships are in excellent condition, having been fully refurbished (and given selected minor upgrades) during reactivation at Detyens Shipyards in Charleston, South Carolina. Note the AN/SYR-1 missile telemetry downlink phased-array antenna visible above the starboard bridge. Together with the AN/SPS-48E 3-D radar, the WDS Mk-14 Weapons Direction System, and the SM-2 missile, the SYR-1 represents a core component of the multi-target engagement capability of the ship's New Threat Upgrade (NTU) combat system.
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