A high-ranking defense official said yesterday the military will earmark a special budget next year, to develop a joint-operation system focusing on electronic and information warfare.
The system has already begun on an experimental basis in the air force and is set to be extended to the other sections of the armed forces once trials have been completed, said Lieutenant General Abe C. Lin (
The initiative is the result of a recommendation by Chief of the General Staff General Tang Yao-ming (
Lin declined to reveal the size of the budget for the project, which he said is still being planned.
The air force experiment is being conducted under the codename "Tienkan" (??z) and features the establishment of an electronic warfare unit using a modified C-130 aircraft as an operations platform.
"The Tienkan project will be extended from the air force to other forces in the future, since a joint-operation of all the forces is absolutely necessary for defense against potential military action by China," Lin said.
"Considering that the Taiwan Strait is comparatively narrow, an Su-27 fighter plane from China will need only around a minute to cross the strait to reach Taiwan's western coastline. Under such circumstances, only a joint operation of the forces would be capable of responding to an intrusion," he said.
"But there are some problems with the Tienkan project which have yet to be solved. For example, Tienkan units are planned to be stationed in eastern parts of Taiwan, rather than in western parts," Lin said. "But will eastern parts of the country be immune from first attacks?"
"Although our defense strategy has been re-oriented from offense-capable to self-defense, it does not mean that we will do nothing if we are under attack. We should develop a capability to launch a counterstrike immediately after we are attacked," Lin said.
Lin said that in last year's Hankuang military exercises, the red army (posing as the enemy) defeated the blue army (defense troops) for the first time in several decades by hacking into the computer systems of the blue army.
"The red army was able to penetrate into the computer systems because the blue army did not follow certain security codes. Following penetration of the blues' computer systems, soldiers of the red army altered combat orders for the blue army to confuse them or waste their efforts," Lin said.
An official with the army, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was not very difficult for users of the military's internal computer system to hack into computer networks of different units, as long as the target units do not follow security codes or do not take precaution against in-coming messages, whether in the form of combat orders or documents.
Major General Fu Tai-hsing (
In order to develop information warfare, Fu called for an integration of military and civilian resources, saying, "The distinction between military and civilian resources will be blurred in the future in this area."
But the task will not be easy, he said.
"Even the US cannot mount a 100 percent defense against information attacks," Fu said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source