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Army tests armored car

The army will soon start road tests for an eight-wheeled armored vehicle which it developed with technical assistance from local car-makers, sources said yesterday.

The nationwide road tests are aimed at determining whether the vehicle can sustain long-range cruising speeds and operate normally on different surfaces ranging from country roads to freeways.

The Army General Headquarters declined to comment on the planned tests, maintaining its customary low profile toward arms development or purchases.

The army has great hopes for the new vehicle. Three prototypes have been produced over the past five years, with only the latest type still in its testing phase.

An army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US military had suggested that wheeled vehicles, rather than tracked ones, were better suited to operate in this country.

"We used to focus our attention on tracked vehicles. But we have changed our view after seeing that wheeled vehicles could be just as good ... in combat or peacetime operations," the officer said.

The army's shift to wheeled vehicles started in the mid-1980s when 15 army officials went to Ireland to learn about the construction of wheeled vehicles, writes Eleven Jan (詹皓), a former editor for Defense Technology Monthly magazine, in his book Military Hardware of the ROC Armed Forces.

The officials brought back information that later became the basis for the construction of a six-wheeled vehicle, the CM-31, developed by the army's armored car production center in Nantou County's Chichi township.

The CM-31 did not go into production because it did not meet army requirements. That setback was discouraging for officials, who had strongly recommended that wheeled vehicles act as main personnel carriers in the future.

The eight-wheeled vehicle project appears more likely to succeed, however, because the army has improved its vehicle-making skills.

A senior defense official said the army had also considered developing vehicles with more than eight wheels but dropped the plan after deciding that the number of wheels was not the main issue.

"An eight-wheeled vehicle is already enough for us. We have no need to try anything beyond our capabilities," the official said.
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