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Military plans to export weapons

The military plans to expand its weapons exports to foreign countries, especially those in the Middle East. This effort will be led by the newly established armament system, defense officials said yesterday.

The Combined Logistics Command (CLC) and the Chun Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) are to be the main providers of weapons available for sales to foreign countries.

The military is to target countries in the Middle East as the primary buyers of its weapons systems ranging from rifles and various types of ammunition to rockets and missiles.

The CSIST, for instance, has demonstrated its newly developed RT-2000 multiple rocket system at the 2003 Abu Dhabi International Defense Exhibition held in mid-March in the United Arab Emirates.

The RT-2000, already on order by the army, might become the first large weapon system exported to a foreign country in recent memory. But it will face stiff competition from similar products from other countries.

The biennial Abu Dhabi International Defense Exhibition has been chosen as the best platform to promote weapon systems to potential customers, defense officials said, adding that Taiwan exhibited its weapons there for the first time in 2001.

The CLC, formerly known as the combined services force, has been selling small arms to certain Middle Eastern countries for years but refused to admitted it.

A type of rifle developed by the CLC is currently used by a Middle Eastern country which has close military ties with Taiwan.

The CLC is desperate to sell a variety of conventional weapons it has developed. These weapons are mostly in storage due to the lack of large orders from the armed services.

Large-quantity sales of the Type-86 rifle, the latest variant of which is called the Type-91, has been slow because the armed services do not have any plans or the budget to buy it to replace their older rifles.

The last-generation Type-65K2 rifle, also developed by the CLC, is still the weapon most widely used by the armed services despite many complaints.

It has also been adopted by special operations units as their primary small arm, although its barrel is too long to allow a special-ops soldier to move freely in difficult terrain.

The armed services cannot keep up with the speed in which the CLC develops new products, mainly because of budgetary restraints.

To solve the problem of unused new weapon systems being stockpiled in warehouses, the military's newly established armament system decided to export the extra items.

The armament system, headed by deputy defense minister for armament General Chen Chao-ming (陳肇敏), has been operational for less than two years and is still in the development stage.

It is to incorporate the CSIST and major production units of the CLC on Oct. 1. The CSIST is to become its research arm while the CLC's production units will provide it with the ability to produce weapons according to its own plans.

One of the missions of the armament system will be the promotion and sale of weapon systems to foreign countries, but it still has a long way to go to reach this goal.
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