October 29,2008:  Taiwan officially announced it will be producing 300 of the new Hsiung Feng 2E cruise missiles. The 19 foot long missile weighs a ton (with a 450 pound warhead) and has a top speed of 800 kilometers an hour. Max range is 600 kilometers. It uses inertial and GPS guidance.

Taiwan tends to develop its new weapons quietly, and then suddenly reveal them. The Hsiung Feng 2E suddenly began showing up in military parades recently, with little official comment. The Hsiung Feng 2E was developed from the Hsiung Feng 2 anti-ship missile. This was a smaller weapon (.685 ton), with a range of 160 kilometers. It entered service in the early 1990s, and by the late 1990s, developers were working on turning it into a cruise missile. The Hsiung Feng 2E can be launched from ships or from land and can threaten Chinese targets several hundred kilometers inland.