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Gabriel Dominguez

Taiwan’s coastguard fired a supersonic anti-ship missile during a military exercise last week, an unusual move by a civilian law enforcement agency that analysts say could be aimed at complicating potential war plans.
The drill matters not only because it highlights the growing integration between the agency and Taiwan’s navy, experts argue, but also because missile-armed coastguard vessels would add another threat the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would have to account for in a conflict.
On Friday, the Anping-class coastguard patrol vessel Qijin launched a home-grown Hsiung Feng III, or HF-3, which hit a decommissioned navy frigate more than 100km (62 miles) away, according to local media. The coastguard also fired an HF-2, an older subsonic anti-ship weapon, during the drills, which involved Taiwan’s army, navy and air force.
This means at least three named vessels of the coastguard’s 12-ship Anping class have now fired Hsiung Feng missiles, underscoring a broader effort to turn them into an additional pool of naval strike platforms.
Based on the navy’s Tuo Chiang-class corvette, the vessels are designed to be armed with up to 16 HF-2 and HF-3 anti-ship missiles upon wartime mobilisation.
John Bradford, executive director of the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies and a former US Navy officer, said the developments made long-standing arrangements between the coastguard and navy more visible while also showing that their cooperation was taking new forms.
“The two forces are definitely getting closer, learning to cooperate and identifying ways to complement each other,” he said. “What was going on before is becoming more visible while they are simultaneously doing things never done before.”

The practice of arming coastguard vessels with anti-ship missiles is unusual internationally, as coastguards are generally associated with law enforcement, safety and patrol duties rather than military and long-range strike missions.
There is some precedent, however. During the late Cold War, the United States Coast Guard fitted some Hamilton-class vessels with Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The Mellon patrol vessel fired one in January 1990 before the capability was removed.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration remains a civilian agency in peacetime, but its wartime role is built into the island’s defence framework.
The island’s National Defence Act allows the government to bring the coastguard into the military order of battle during a conflict. A 2021 special defence procurement law went further by funding wartime weapons and related support systems for coastguard vessels under a peacetime-to-wartime conversion programme.
Beijing has taken a different route towards integrating its coastguard with the military.
In July 2018, the China Coast Guard was transferred from civilian administration to the People’s Armed Police, placing it within a structure under the Central Military Commission. Beijing’s Coast Guard Law, which took effect in 2021, also allows the agency to carry out defence operations under the commission’s orders.
Its director, Zhang Jianming, is a former navy officer. The PLA Navy has also transferred ships to the coastguard, including 22 Type 056 corvettes from 2021, with their missile and torpedo launchers removed.
Beijing has also deployed coastguard formations during major exercises around Taiwan, including Joint Sword in 2024 and Strait Thunder-2025A, using them for patrols, inspections and other law-enforcement operations – moves seen as possible rehearsals for a blockade.


That said, Simona Grano, head of Research Area China-Taiwan Relations at the University of Zurich, cautioned against viewing Taipei’s approach as an attempt to replicate Beijing’s model. While the mainland had integrated its coastguard into a military command structure, Taiwan retained a civilian coastguard in peacetime and was preparing it for wartime operations, she said.
“The institutional models and the political purposes are quite different,” she said.
Taipei’s preparations date back at least to 2005, when the Wei Hsing patrol vessel fired an HF-2 during the annual Han Kuang military exercises.
Within the Anping class, the Anping fired an HF-2 in 2022 and the Bali fired an HF-3 in 2024, while an unidentified vessel of the class fired two HF-2s in 2025, according to a navy report to lawmakers.
The approach became more visible during this year’s Han Kuang iteration in August, when the Bali was fitted with Hsiung Feng missiles and operated alongside navy Kuang Hua VI missile boats in a coastal-strike drill involving the navy’s newly established Littoral Operations Command.
There is no indication the exercise changed the coastguard’s wartime command arrangements, but it showed a coastguard patrol vessel operating alongside navy missile boats in a strike role.
Those operational preparations have been accompanied by moves to strengthen links between the navy and coastguard leadership.


Hours after Friday’s drill, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling said a navy flag officer would fill the coastguard’s restored third deputy director general post, describing the move as part of closer cooperation between the two services.
The position was restored under legislation passed in June, with the government citing peacetime-to-wartime conversion and the coastguard’s expanding military-related duties among the reasons for adding another deputy.
A Taiwan coastguard expert, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to comment publicly, said that arming coastguard vessels with anti-ship missiles could help close the gap between law enforcement and military responses if a confrontation involving mainland Chinese warships escalated into armed conflict.
However, the expert said the approach also risked blurring the line between law enforcement and military action, complicating crisis responses.
For the PLA, this would mean treating some Taiwanese coastguard “white hulls” – not just naval “grey hulls” – as potential anti-ship missile threats, the expert added.
Despite that added complexity, Bradford said the missile-armed coastguard vessels would not fundamentally change the military balance.
“Given the size of the PLA Navy and [PLA] Air Force, these are not going to be a game-changer,” he said. “Yet in naval warfare, every opposing vessel adds risk to your plan and forces you to make increasingly difficult choices.”
Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not see Taiwan as an independent state, but most are opposed to changing the status quo by force.


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A video posted to social media shows the Anping-class coastguard patrol vessel Qijin launching a Hsiung Feng III supersonic missile during a military exercise last Friday. Photo: Youtube/mna_roc

The Qijin is the fourth vessel in its class known to have launched either an HF-2 or HF-3 missile. Photo: cga.gov.tw

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Further integrating the agency with the military would multiply threats to the PLA Navy in a conflict, analysts say


Further integrating the agency with the military would multiply threats to the PLA Navy in a conflict, analysts say.


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Taiwan coastguard’s rare missile firing reveals deepening links with navy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Further integrating the agency with the military would multiply threats to the PLA Navy in a conflict, analysts say

Further integrating the agency with the military would multiply threats to the PLA Navy in a conflict, analysts say