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MND officials to attend anti-missile test-firing

The military is to send a delegation to the US to witness a test-firing of the Patriot PAC-3 missile this month at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, defense sources said yesterday.

The delegation is composed of senior officials from the armaments bureau and department of resources under the Ministry of National Defense (MND) as well as the army's missile command.

Deputy defense minister for armaments General Chen Chao-ming (陳肇敏) was said to be going but the ministry said it has no knowledge of the event. The MND is known for denying information not made public by itself.

The anti-missile system has been deployed by the US Army and was used in combat in the war against Iraq last year.

It is one of the major weapon systems that the military will buy in the next few years.

A defense source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the test-firing is being specially held for potential buyers of the anti-missile system.

"A total of four countries have been invited for the occasion. They include Taiwan, Japan, Germany and Netherlands," the source said.

"In the test-firing, the PAC-3 is to intercept a Patriot PAC-2 acting as the target. The PAC-3 will demonstrate its highly accurate hit-to-kill capabilities," he said.

The PAC-2 and PAC-3 are different missile interceptors, but share the same designation of "Patriot." They were developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin respectively.

A senior official with Lockheed Martin in Taiwan, who declined to be identified, said he has heard about the military's plan to witness the upcoming PAC-3 test-firing, but he is not in a position to confirm it.

The test-firing will be conducted by the US Army on Thursday at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, sources said.

The military has been keeping a low profile about the matter since the planned purchase of the PAC-3 has become a political issue because of its associations with the referendum to be held on March 20 together with the presidential election.

One of the referendum questions is about the necessity of upgrading anti-missile systems to defend against the increasing ballistic-missile threat from China.

Due to manipulation of public opinion by the opposition camp, the planned purchase of the PAC-3 has become a very complicated issue.

Over the past two weeks at the legislature, Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) has been bombarded with questions from opposition lawmakers about whether the planned purchase of the PAC-3 system would still go ahead if the result of the referendum indicates that the public is against upgrading defenses.

Tang said that the decision to buy the PAC-3 was based on strategic necessity and that whatever the result of the referendum, the military will buy the system.
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