Committee reviews defense spending

The chiefs of the three branches of the armed services yesterday appeared at a closed-door Legislative Yuan defense committee meeting to defend the classified portions of their budgets for next year.

Admiral Li Chieh (李傑) of the navy attended the morning session of yesterday's defense committee meeting, where he delivered a report on the progress of the navy's plans to buy four Kidd-class destroyers and eight diesel-powered submarines from the US, according to a lawmaker on the defense committee.

Li refuted media reports that the navy has given up its plans to purchase AEGIS-class destroyers from the US. Their procurement is still the navy's long-term goal, the lawmaker quoted Li as saying.

Li also defended at the committee meeting the classified portion of the navy's budget for next year.

General Chen Cheng-hsiang (陳鎮湘) of the army and General Chen Chao-ming (陳肇敏) of the air force attended the afternoon session of the meeting separately to seek support for their classified budgets.

At yesterday's meeting, the legislative defense committee reduced by only NT$20 million the over- NT$35 billion classified portion of the requested defense budget for next year, which does not include funding for the National Security Bureau (NSB) and the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST).

The committee reached an agreement to temporarily freeze the NT$5.1 billion budget for the army's purchase of a new tactical communication system as well as the three services' installation of a powerful C4ISR (command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) system to be bought from the US.

The committee demanded the Ministry of National Defense submit a report on how the new equipment is to meet the combat needs of Taiwan, a lawmaker said.

It will then ask the defense ministry to authorize the CSIST to integrate local civilian and military resources in the field to build similar systems locally, the lawmaker said.

Lawmaker Chou Cheng-chih (周正之), a retired lieutenant general, said he could not find any reason for the military to buy equipment from abroad if it can be built in Taiwan.

Citing the army's plan to buy a second unit of the US-made IMSE (improved mobile subscriber equipment) tactical communication system as an example, Chou said a similar system could be built locally, though it might not be as powerful as the imported one.

In addition, Chou said he and four other defense committee lawmakers went to check the combat readiness of the first unit of the IMSE already in service at the 6th corps in northern Taiwan on Tuesday.

The results were disastrous, Chou said, as the IMSE unit was unable to function properly for over four years after the 6th corps was required to change its pre-set communication positions.