In an attempt to boost morale following setbacks in the Hankuang No. 19 exercise, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday the military needs to practice more.
Chen made the comments as the military announced a major live-fire exercise for next month.
"One shot off the mark does not matter. You only need more practice. Fire more until you hit the target without fault," Chen said.
"Generally speaking, the Hankuang [Han Glory] No. 19 exercise was a success. It might have some defects, but every drill has the same problem. The defects cannot obscure the merits of the exercise," Chen said.
Chen made the remarks yesterday as he delivered a speech in a military education and training review meeting held at the office of the Ministry of National Defense.
Speaking in his capacity as commander of the armed forces, Chen told military leaders that he considered the exercise to be a success despite its many problems. Chen encouraged the military to learn from the exercise and do it better the next time.
Chen usually reads from a prepared script, but ad-libbed when he told the military to do more exercises to set things right.
Since the Sept. 4 exercise, Chen had been praising the military for its performance.
This praise was given regardless of the exercise being full of glitches, some technical failures and some man-made.
The military had to cancel the firing of a French-made Mica air-to-air missile because its intended target drone had been shot down by a Standard SM-I air-defense missile belonging to the navy.
A bigger disappointment was a submarine-launched torpedo going out of control while approaching a target ship.
The series of problems was publicly criticized and mocked.
Despite Chen's encouragement, the military plans to redeem its reputation by holding another large live-fire exercise next month.
Ministry spokesman Major-General Huang Sui-sheng (
Huang denied, however, that the exercise is intended as a response to the shortcomings of the Hankuang exercise.
"The exercise is still being planned. The details are not yet available. But it will be a joint-operation live-fire exercise like the Hankuang No. 19," Huang said.
He declined to respond to speculation that the navy would fire another torpedo from a submarine.
Shortly after the Hankuang exercise, the navy had vowed to fire another live torpedo in a real exercise but without specifying a time.
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