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Military chief says information warfare development vital

The military plans to spend billions of NT dollars each year to build up its information warfare capability, in an attempt to counter increasing threats from China in the category, a high-ranking official with the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday.

The technology procurement is to begin in the next fiscal year, with a budget earmarked at NT$8.64 billion. The money will additionally be devoted to enhancing the joint operation of the armed forces, the official said.

It reflects the increasing significance of information operations -- another name for information warfare -- a field which China and other military powers are now devoted to developing, he said.

During a conference yesterday focusing on China's development of information warfare, Lieutenant General Abe Lin (林勤經), director of the ministry's communication, electronics and information bureau, called for more attention to be paid to the fact that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is extending its use of civilian resources to support its information operations.

"Information warfare is characterized by a high consumption rate. Its operation will be beyond the logistical capability of the military. The PLA learned from the US forces' operations in the Gulf War to develop a larger logistical capacity utilizing civilian resources," Lin said.

"On the basis of its information warfare development, China can achieve by 2010 the level of military capability US forces had in the 1980s.

In contrast, Taiwan's military build-up has slowed down due to budgetary constraints, he said. Taiwan's military superiority over China in the air and naval sectors will disappear in the years to come if nothing is done to reverse the trend," he added.
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