With the procurement and deployment of three additional Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries, 70 percent of Taiwan's population and 60 percent of its industrial facilities will be under the theater missile defense system's protection, according to a report released yesterday by the Ministry of National Defense (MND).
Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (
A MND official who asked to remain anonymous released major portions of the report's text to local media yesterday.
The proposal said the procurement of the PAC-3 batteries is an efficient military investment.
The MND official said that according to the proposal, Taiwan has deployed 200 PAC-2 interceptors in northern Taiwan to protect the capital.
With the procurement of three additional PAC-3 batteries with 384 missiles, a total of 584 missiles will be deployed in northern, central and southern Taiwan, and major cities and military facilities of the west coast would be under the protective umbrella of the theater missile defense system, the report said.
The proposal said that 70 percent of Taiwan's population and 60 percent of its industrial facilities would be under the system's protection, the official said.
With the deployment of 584 interceptor missiles, Taiwan could survive a first strike from a People's Liberation Army (PLA) missile attack, the report said.
According to the report, the "highly agile hit-to-kill interceptor" has an 80 percent chance of intercepting an incoming ballistic missile, he added.
The proposal said that, although the US sold Japan and the Netherlands PAC-3 interceptors at the price of US$3.2 million per missile, it has proposed selling the missiles to Taiwan at the lower price of US$3.01 million per missile.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Wen-chung (
Since the legislature has so far blocked the special arms budget, the ministry has made the procurement of eight diesel-powered submarines and 12 P-3C maritime patrol aircraft a priority, Lee added.
Meanwhile, a military expert questioned the effectiveness of the Patriot anti-missile system.
Lin Tsung-ta (
Lin said China currently had an arsenal of more than 700 short-range ballistic missiles on the coast opposite Taiwan.
He said that accordiong to the "two plus two theory," a defender must simultaneously launch four missiles -- two Theater High-Altitude Area Defense missiles and two Patriots -- for each incoming missile in order to have a 95 percent probability of intercepting it. To achieve that success rate, Taiwan would therefore need nearly 3,000 missiles to effectively counter China's short-range ballistic missile threat.
He said the 584 anti-missiles was far from the huge number of missiles Taiwan really needed, and that therefore Taiwan should focus on deterrent weapons instead.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS