Taiwan's first land-based Harpoon missiles due by year-end as navy plans fourth littoral combat group

The first missiles for Taiwan's land-based Harpoon Coastal Defense System will arrive before the end of this year, senior military officials said on Wednesday, 7 October, and the navy's Littoral Combat Command plans to stand up a fourth littoral combat group in 2027 to field them, the Liberty Times reported.

The first shipment is reported to contain 128 missiles. Military officials declined to confirm that figure, but sources quoted by the newspaper said the missiles are now in lot-by-lot production in the United States and that a first batch will ship before the year is out.

A 400-missile coastal defence buy

Taiwan is spending more than NT$90.2 billion on 100 sets of the land-based system, covering 400 missiles, four training missiles, 100 launcher vehicles and 25 radar trucks. The launcher and radar vehicles began arriving in the second quarter of 2025, while the missiles themselves are the last major element still to come.

The missile is the RGM-84L-4 Harpoon Block II (U), an upgraded land-launched variant. According to the Liberty Times, it pairs GPS and active radar guidance with strong electronic counter-countermeasures, and can strike landing fleets and carrier groups as well as military targets on a coastline.

Pentagon officials have told US congressional hearings that Taiwan has top priority worldwide for Harpoon deliveries, with production lines running at full capacity, and the full set of 100 systems is due to be delivered by the end of 2028.

The US Navy and Boeing carried out the system's first developmental test at the Point Mugu Sea Range in California in late July, launching a Harpoon from land to hit a target vessel in near-shore waters. US and international reporting said the equipment tested was configured for the Taiwanese order.

Crews already training on the trucks

Using the launchers and radar vehicles already in Taiwan, the Littoral Combat Command has formed mobile missile vehicle acceptance companies and is running conversion training under a US plan. The sources said the Harpoon system has been integrated with the navy's existing surveillance, communications and command networks through command-and-control equipment built by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, and that this integration has passed verification.

The Littoral Combat Command was formed on 1 July and currently controls three littoral combat groups, which were previously known as the Hai Feng anti-ship missile groups, plus a maritime tactical reconnaissance group that flies Albatross drones. Adding the fourth littoral combat group would give it five operational groups.

The navy has also disbanded its Maritime Surveillance Command, which sat under the Fleet Command, and folded its fixed sites and mobile sea-surveillance radars into the littoral combat groups. Each group therefore holds its own radar search and anti-ship strike capability and can fight on its own.

Mixed missile batteries

The littoral groups are moving to fully mobile, truck-mounted operations, and vertical take-off drone units are expected to be assigned directly to them to act as the missile crews' eyes far out at sea, the newspaper said.

Once the new group forms, the Harpoon batteries are to operate alongside Taiwan's own Hsiung Feng II, Hsiung Feng III and extended-range Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missiles under a single command-and-control system from the institute, with a Marine Corps security battalion escorting the mobile launchers. The aim is a layered mix of subsonic and supersonic missiles able to mount saturation attacks on ships crossing the Taiwan Strait.

The officials spoke days after the first two F-16V Block 70 fighters bought from the United States arrived in Taiwan, the Liberty Times noted.