The Ministry of National Defense (MND) plans to ask for NT$319.3 billion (US$10.7 billion) in funding next year, mostly to purchase domestically manufactured weaponry, according to the budget plans it submitted to the Legislative Yuan yesterday for review.
The items on the shopping list include NT$74.8 billion for Tien Kung III missile systems to be delivered over the next decade, Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Chung Shyang unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and Red Falcon anti-armor rockets.
The ministry said the impetus to invest in locally made weaponry is the result of a lack of significant development in negotiations toward foreign arms purchases.
The budget proposal for next year is NT$820 million less than this year’s budget, the ministry said.
Most of the savings came through a reduction in the personnel maintenance budget, which used to account for half the ministry’s overall budget. Proposed personnel costs are NT$920 million lower than this year’s, due to programs to make the military leaner and better trained.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said the most eye-catching item on the list of proposed purchases is the Tien Kung III (Skybow, 天弓) surface-to-air (SAM) system, which would also be the largest order for domestically manufactured arms in recent years.
The contract is for multiple systems to be delivered over a decade and the ministry has already allocated NT$280 million for next year, Lin said.
The system is the newest in the Skybow series and is a replacement for the MIM-23 Hawk missile system. With a purported maximum range of 20km, the Tien Kung III system is designed to counter tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
According to the budget proposals, the deployment of the Skybow 3 variant would enhance the nation’s missile shield ability in terms of medium-range missile coverage.
The ministry said it was also looking into ways to further upgrade the capabilities of the Skybow system in terms of mobility and efficiency.
Despite rumors that the Marine Corps would face personnel cuts, the budget proposals showed the marines’ arsenal would be boosted by 36 more US-manufactured AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicles, Chung Shyang (Red Sparrow, 中翔) UAVs and the Red Falcon close-range anti-armor rockets.
The marines expect to replace its aging LVTP-5 with the AAV-7s, which are expected to cost NT$530 million and be delivered between next year and 2019, the budget plan showed.
Meanwhile, the ministry said it decided to continue the example it set last year by allocating just NT$2 million and NT$500,000 respectively for the potential purchase of US-made F-16C/D jets and the first-stage assessment on diesel-powered submarines. Given the lack of US response to request for such items, the ministry said it did not want to waste resources by allocating more money for them.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS