Letter: Updating arms is critical

On April 3, a UH-1H helicopter smashed into a police radio tower in a remote mountain region in southern Kaohsiung County resulted in the deaths of eight servicemen ("Five soldiers killed in Chishan chopper crash," April 4, page 1).

This UH-1H chopper model, dubbed the "flying coffin" by some, was produced at the time of the Vietnam War and was introduced to Taiwan in the early 1970s.

If there had been no tragedy, I am sure that nobody would pay attention to the obsolete equipment used by the nation's military.

But the fact is that men died because of equipment that cannot be replaced because of the wrangling over the national defense budget. We should not wait for a tragedy to claim the lives of several members of the military to begin updating the nation's defense assets.

Even though the military has done its best to include funds to replace equipment in the budget, not much action has been taken on its proposals.

As we inspect and review the present equipment used by the armed forces, we see that much of it was made during the 1960s. The frequent tragic accidents in the armed forces indicate that the old equipment is like "an invisible killer" that poses a threat to our troops.

For example, because of mechanical failure, two years ago an M60-A1 tank crushed an armor company commander in Taichung. This type of tank also dates to the 1960s.

The nation's navy still uses Guppy Class (SS-478 Cutlass and SS-426 Tusk) submarines that have been in service for more than 60 years.

The M41 and M113 tanks on our offshore islets have been in service for for 50 years, S-2T anti-submarine aircraft for 40 years, M151 command vehicles and UH-1H choppers for 35 years, and C130 transport planes for 20 years.

The military has proposed budgets to retire all this outdated equipment, but its plans have stalled with the lack of funds.

I hope that the UH-1H helicopter accident will alert people about dangers soldiers face, even in peacetime.

I hope that it makes the government realize that the lives of hundreds of thousands of military personnel rely on dangerous and outdated equipment. I hope that it makes people think about who will take the responsibility if there are no advanced weapons to maintain the nation's security.

It is a certainty that we will see more soldiers die unnecessarily because their equipment is unreliable, and the problem would become much more severe if war were to break out.

I earnestly appeal to the nation's politicians not to make millions of military dependents shed more tears by blocking funds for replacing dangerous equipment.

Dai Kaifeng
Taichung