Taiwan Coast Guard Vessel Anping firing missile
The Drive/The War-Zone reports,
During the test conducted on May 23, officials said that the HF-2 missiles were launched from the cutter off the coast of the Jiupeng Base and successfully hit a target ship that was located 62 miles off the coast of Lanyu, near Orchid Island. According to Taiwan’s Liberty Times Net reporter Zheng Jingyi, “this live ammunition firing specifically verifies the integration of the naval forces and sea cruisers under the ‘peace-to-war conversion.’”
This was a test and the missile launch equipment was removed immediately after the test. The launch and control was conducted by Taiwanese Navy personnel, temporarily assigned for the test.
Since the cutters are a version of a missile equipped Taiwanese Navy corvette, there would seem little reason to believe the test would not have been successful.
Reportedly twelve corvettes and twelve cutters are planned, but the prototype Navy corvette was commissioned in 2014, the second not until 2021, and none since. On the other hand four of the cutters have entered service beginning 2020 with two more under construction.
The normal armament of these and other Taiwanese cutters includes an unusual 42 round, remote controlled, “Zhenhai” 70mm/2.75″ rocket launcher. It is unclear if these rockets have a guidance system like APKWS. Photos below from Wikipedia.
Taiwan Anping-class offshore patrol vessel onboard multi-barrel Zhenhai rocket system
Anping-class offshore patrol vessel onboard 42-barrel Zhenhai rocket system, looking forward
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
NCSIST of Taiwan produces the “Zhenhai” unguided rocket, and has ties to IAI of Israel. The Chien Hsiang (“Rising Sword”) Loiter Munitions looks and performs virtually identical to the IAI “Harpy” loitering munitions. IAI has a long association with Thales Group of Northern Ireland, who also happens to produce the Hydra-70 rocket under license from GD Ordnance and Tactical Systems. Is it possible that Israel is a “back door conduit” of supplying tech to Taiwan? Who knows, but then again Israel has it’s own Strategic Interests in both the CCP and the ROC that are independent of our’s (i.e. the USA’s)…
I any case it looks like a good weapon system for swarms and close in targets
I’ve not read about a coast guard ship having rockets before. I googled and couldn’t find any specs on them. I assume they are surface to surface, range about 3-4nm?
Depends on if launcher is moving or standing still! Static range is ~8,000-meters, and moving in the direction of target, is extended to ~11,000-meters! Though NCSIST states that these rockets are unguided, Thales and IAI are developing three different guided rockets. Don’t know if these “Guided” rockets are be developed jointly or independent of one another and/or what the likely range is likely to be. But I suspect they’ll be virtually the same as unguided ones…
There are several programs internationally to turn the very common unguided Hydra 70mm/2.75″ rocket (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_70) into a simiactive laser homing missile by the addtion of a guidance kit. APKWS is currently the most widely used. https://chuckhillscgblog.net/2022/05/08/more-on-surface-to-surface-application-of-apkws/
As Secundius notes, range can depend on the speed of the launch platform. Helicopter and surface launched rockets have a range of about 8000 meters while rockets launched from high speed aircraft headed in the direction of the target at altitude add about 3000 meters to the maximum range.
APKWS is primarily an anti-surface weapon, but it has demonstrated effectiveness against relatively low and slow air targets. Launched from a high speed aircraft it has demonstrated effectiveness against a target simulating an anti-ship cruise missile.
Thanks all for your replies. It’s only been a month since I last looked at this blog- miss out so much!
The blog averages about one post a day and there are comments almost every day, frequently several. I am very pleased to see so much contribution from the readers.