The army's new tactical communication system is to be put to the test in next year's Hankuang No. 19 exercise to see whether it is as good as the army boasts, defense sources said yesterday.
It will be the first time that the "improved mobile subscriber equipment" (IMSE) is to test its limits in the annual Hankuang-series exercises.
The IMSE had been previously tested in the Hankuang-series exercises, but only part of its functions were proven to be effective.
In next year's Hankuang No. 19 exercise, the system will be subjected the harshest conditions to date.
A high-ranking defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he does not have to wait until Hankuang No. 19 to know the result of the test.
"The army exaggerates the effectiveness of the system," the official said.
"Take its fax speeds as an example. No matter how much bandwidth for faxing documents the system specifications claim to have, the real speed of the system is only two pages per minute," he said.
"Such slow transmission speed will not satisfy the needs of a real combat situation. The army will be in great trouble if it does not try to improve this problem, not to mention others, before the Hankuang No. 19 exercise."
The defense official's candid criticism of the US-made IMSE, which was made famous for its performance in the 1991 Gulf War, shows that the system has yet to win trust in this country.
The army is currently the only branch of the military to employ the IMSE. Army quartermasters bought one unit of the system in 1999 and the army plans to buy three more units to build an island-wide network by 2005 at a cost of NT$25 billion.
The legislature had also shown strong mistrust of the system. It had frozen at the end of last year the army's proposed budget for the purchase of a new unit of the system.
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