The Ministry of National Defense yesterday tried to end recriminations surrounding a series of mishaps during the Hankuang No. 19 exercises earlier this month.
"All the major weapons systems of the armed services were put to test in the exercise. These tests were very important since they offered vital data about the weapons systems being tested," a ministry news release quoted Chief of the General Staff Admiral Li Chieh (李傑) as saying.
"There were some weapons systems that failed the tests. These failures should not be ignored. Their causes must be found," Li said.
Li was speaking at a meeting to review the exercise on Wednesday to discuss why the exercises had so many problems, the ministry said.
Li said one of the problems the ministry would be investigating was a torpedo that had to be prematurely detonated after it went out of control.
The ministry denied that Li faulted the navy for the incident, as reported by a Chinese-language newspaper yesterday.
The report said Li reprimanded the navy for insufficient training before the exercises.
Li was previously a commander-in-chief of the navy who specialized in submarine warfare.
The ministry will also investigate why a Standard SM-I air-defense missile fired from a Chengkung-class frigate missed its target and mistakenly shot down a drone intended as a target for a Mica air-to-air missile to be launched from a Mirage 2000-5 fighter. The military had to cancel the launch of the Mica.
The problems during the exercises were an embarrassment for the military, the navy in particular.
A naval officer who was involved in the exercises said the navy should not be made the scapegoat since it was the army that designed the war games.
"Take the SM-I incident as an example," the officer said.
"According to normal operation procedures, the navy should not have been asked to fire the SM-I at a target within visual range. The arrangement was apparently aimed at pleasing the spectators at the scene."
"It was not really a mistake that the SM-I missile missed its intended target drone and went for another target further away. The missile was designed to find any hostile target in the air that posed a greater threat.
"The target drone intended for the Mica was selected by the missile possibly because of its flying speed and angles," he said.
"As to the torpedo which went out of control in the exercise, the navy should not be blamed, either.
"The torpedo was of the SUT type manufactured by Germany. It was brought in through irregular channels over a decade ago," he said.
"There is no post-sales service for these SUT torpedoes.
"They are like products bought on the black market. No one can guarantee the quality and life of these torpedoes," he said.
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