According to Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh in Focus Taiwan, Taiwan’s military will start installing locally-produced 105mm guns onto its 8×8 Clouded Leopard armored vehicles next month, a military source told CNA on December 5. After completing the installation, the military will begin conducting initial tests of the gun’s capabilities from March next year.
The source said that the domestically-made 105mm gun barrel generates 60 percent less recoil than the imported barrels used so far, adding that its ammunition would also have better penetration. Before allowing a new weapon to enter mass production, it must pass through the other stages of the Taiwan military’s five-step new-weapon development process. The process includes initial conceptual design, related engineering development, initial weapon testing, and a combat readiness test.