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US to evaluate military's logistics

The US is to send another delegation to Taiwan next year to evaluate military combat readiness, but this time around will focus on the logistics systems of the services, defense sources said yesterday.

The delegation will submit its recommendations on how the military can strengthen its capabilities after seeing local logistics systems in operation.

The US military is expected to promote maintenance systems that it thinks will be necessary for Taiwan.

The move looks quite natural, as the US has over the past few years accepted Taiwan's requests for desperately needed weapon systems

The time is therefore considered appropriate for the military to consider how it can improve its logistics systems, so that it can handle the considerable variety and quantity of new weapons systems to be delivered from the US.

It will be the first time that the US military has sent a delegation to Taiwan to chiefly evaluate the military's logistics systems.

In recent years, the US had sent a number of delegations here but they focused their attention on weapons systems and combat training.

A senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said details of the visit by the US delegation are to be discussed in an annual meeting between military representatives of the two sides in Washington within days.

"The delegation might come in the first half of next year. But the time is to be decided in the meeting in Washington," the official said.

A delegation led by the vice defense minister, Lin Chong-pin (林中斌), is scheduled to arrive in Washington in mid-December to attend the annual meeting with the US military.

The military representatives will also discuss new arms requests with their US counterparts.

Given that the Bush administration agreed three years ago to sell most of the big-ticket weapon systems that Taiwan wanted to buy, all the military can now expect from the US is mainly smaller or less important items.

The logistics needs are set to be a topic of discussion in the Washington meeting although the military has not expressed much interest in the matter.

A defense source said the US took the initiative to discuss logistics needs for Taiwan and that it wants Taiwan's military to address serious logistics problems that exist at present.

It is commonly alleged that the military has not placed very much importance on its logistics systems, not only investing relatively little money in the field but also treating logistics personnel as "second-class" or "expendable" members of the military family.

The military's disregard for these systems has seriously affected the combat-readiness ratios of weapon systems in the services.

The army, for instance, owns over 1,000 tanks of various types, but only one-third of them are ready for combat at any given time, army officials said.
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