Four people were detained and questioned for their suspected roles in a procurement scandal, which involved the development of mobile radar systems at the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST), Taiwan’s top military hardware development center, and a computer component supplier.
Public prosecutors in Taoyuan, where the institute’s headquarters are located, took into custody three staff and a manager from the Taiwanese contractor company MiTAC for questioning on Wednesday, with all four suspects detained and held incommunicado as of yesterday.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said the case concerned forgery of data and fabrication of evaluation results in the procurement of “Radar Vehicle for Field Operation and Air Defense,” which was undertaken by the Digital Warfare Section of the CSIST Information and Communications Research Division.
The program was commissioned in May, 2011, by the Ministry of National Defense Armaments Bureau as a pilot project to develop a vehicle-mounted mobile radar system equipped with a “radar signal generator.”
Computer manufacturer MiTAC won the contract order, with one radar vehicle unit costing about NT$70 million (US$2.22 million).
The tender called for the vehicle to be capable of carrying the radar equipment payload with great “slope-climbing ability” to prevent it from toppling over when the vehicle is advancing at 8kph up a 40o incline.
Investigators said that they uncovered forged evaluation results, adding that the vehicle could only advanced at about 6kph up a slope.
The evaluation was done at the institute’s vehicle research and testing center, and its report was presented to the Digital Warfare Section and MiTAC.
Prosecutors alleged three CSIST staff at the Digital Warfare Section responsible for the project altered the test results in collusion with the MiTAC manager, presenting the vehicle as meeting required specifications, and having passed the final approval and acceptance test for the project.
After receiving a tip-off, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office carried out an investigation and allegedly found evidence of forgery and tampered evaluation results.
They detained the three CSIST staff — section head Chou Chih-lung (周志隆), researcher Wu Chewng-hsun (吳政勳) and technician Hsiao Chen-yi (蕭振益), and MiTAC’s IT engineering section manager Wu Chun-lin (武俊麟) on Wednesday.
Although during questioning all four denied having committed the alleged violations, prosecutors have indicted them on forgery, profiteering and other offenses, while requesting the suspects be detained incommunicado to prevent possible collusion and destruction of evidence.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
RSS