Taiwan plans to build a new 'stealth' warship armed with guided-missiles next year in support to China's naval build-up, a top military officer and a lawmaker said today. Construction of the prototype of the 500-tonne corvette is due to start in 2012 for completion in 2014, deputy defence minister Lin Yu-pao said in answer to a question by Kuomintang Party legislator Lin Yu-fang at parliament, AFP reported.

The warship, according to reports will be harder to detect on radar. It is to emerge after China puts into service its first battle carrier group, the legislator said. The presentation to parliament has described the naval warship as a "twin-hulled boat and will be armed with up to eight home-grown Hsiung-feng II ship-to-ship missiles and eight other more lethal Hsiung-feng III anti-ship supersonic missiles.

China has been restoring The Varyag, an old Soviet aircraft carrier bought in 1998. The military said the Varyag will be used for training and as a model for a future indigenously-built ship, according to Andrei Chang, head of the Kanwa Information Centre, which monitors China's military.

Source: OfficialWire