Tianma Missile

In the 1960s, the Nike Hercules missile, the goddess of victory, was introduced to Taiwan, marking the beginning of Taiwan's search for strategic weapons. In 1965, the Zhongshan Academy of Sciences was established and began to actively study ballistic missile operations. In the 1970s, the first self-made Qingfeng missile based on the US MGM-52 Lance missile sample was a short-range ballistic missile with a range of about 130 kilometers (estimated at the time), using a liquid fuel rocket engine and carrying 270 kg of high explosives. It first appeared in the National Day military parade in 1971, but due to pressure from the United States that year, the original plan to reach 300 kilometers was unsuccessful. The research and development unit was reduced, and the missile was not mass-produced. However, in the 1980s, Taiwan also planned another medium-range ballistic missile project, the Tianma Missile. The missile was said to have a body length of 20 meters, a diameter of more than 2 meters, a range of 1,000 kilometers, and a solid-fuel engine. On the basis of the Qingfeng missile, the key technology development of the disjoint mechanism and the research on the ignition of the second section of the rocket after the disjoint are carried out. Although the Tianma Missile has never been seen publicly, Taiwan’s "Chinese Academy of Sciences" talks about controlling rockets allegedly using Tiangong related technology. However, under the circumstances at the time, the United States hoped that the mainland would help them fight the Soviet Union. Therefore, it must not tolerate Taiwan's ability to actively attack the mainland. Under the strong intervention of the United States, Taiwan's surface-to-surface missile project ended without a problem, and its nuclear program was also suspended. The initial tests were quite successful, but also due to the US diplomatic pressure, the missile technology was transferred to the "Tian Gong Project" and the "Tian Sword Project," which became the main research and development energy for Taiwan's air defense missiles. Even so, Taiwan has never ceased its ambition to develop long-range projectile weapons. Since the 1990s, it has begun to divide its work with other research projects, which are carried out in the form of succession through projects such as "Sky", "Lift", "Layer", and "Lift" for development of medium-range ground-to-ground missiles. At the same time, since 1991, the government began to approve the "National Space Science and Technology Development Long-Term Plan" and set up the National Space Planning Office Preparatory Office to convene overseas and domestic researchers, private manufacturers, members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and related planning offices to conduct "sounding Scientific research missions of rockets and artificial satellites.