Taiwan's navy hires two firms to chart the seabed off its southwest coast

Taiwan's defence ministry has hired two domestic surveying companies to measure the depth and shape of the seabed in waters southwest of the island and to prepare airborne laser mapping work, according to a contract award notice published on Thursday 22 October on the government's electronic procurement system. The Navy Command is listed as the unit that will carry out the contract.

The tender covers two lots with a combined value of NT$36.08 million, slightly below the budget of NT$37.34 million. The award date is given as 8 October, and work is expected to run from that day until the end of August 2027. The place of performance is the Zuoying district of Kaohsiung, home to the navy's largest base.

EGS Taiwan won the first lot, the depth survey of the southwest sea area, for NT$20.81 million. RealWorld Surveying and Geomatics took the second lot, described as preparation for airborne lidar mapping, for NT$15.26 million. Six firms bid in total, and both lots were decided by a scored evaluation of the bids rather than on price alone.

The ministry classified the job as a procurement involving national security. When the tender first went out on 1 April, the notice said the purchase was exempt from the World Trade Organization's government procurement rules because it was essential to national security or defence. Bids were opened at the ministry on 29 April.

The award notice does not say exactly which waters will be surveyed, how large the area is, or what technical standards apply. The Liberty Times, which first reported the award, noted that the public documents also do not say which military units will use the results or whether they are tied to a particular mission.

Depth surveys use echo sounders and similar equipment to record how deep the sea is and how the seabed rises and falls. That data feeds nautical charts, safe shipping routes and the planning of operations at sea. For a navy it also underpins how surface ships move and how crews judge the underwater environment, which matters for hunting submarines. Airborne lidar uses lasers fired from aircraft to measure ground height, and some systems can also map shallow coastal waters.

The Liberty Times described the waters southwest of Taiwan as both a major shipping crossroads and an area of military value, where Chinese military aircraft and warships have often operated. It said the seabed there is suited to submarines lying in wait, and that the armed forces are putting more effort into the area to strengthen their position for defending the Taiwan Strait.

The same waters have drawn attention from Chinese research vessels. In August, Taiwan's coast guard said the Chinese research ship Tongji had appeared about 28 nautical miles west-southwest of Xiaoliuqiu, an island off the southwest coast, and was suspected of surveying the area. The coast guard said it sent ships to shadow the vessel and broadcast warnings telling it to leave. The Central News Agency, citing the Liberty Times, reported that those waters lie close to the approaches to the Zuoying naval base.

The contract is modest in size next to Taiwan's big-ticket weapons purchases, but it adds to the basic map and ocean data the armed forces rely on when planning missions in the waters closest to the island.