The viability of the military’s all-volunteer force, a major defense initiative endorsed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is questionable, according to a Control Yuan report published a few weeks ago.
The report came after the Control Yuan last year stated its concern about the nation’s military preparedness after the government started implementation of the plan, which it said might pose “serious risks to national security.”
The report said the initiative’s implementation added to other challenges facing the military, such as falling troop numbers and ongoing reductions to the length of compulsory military service.
“The current conditions of this nation do not permit relying solely on volunteers as a source of military recruitment,” it said.
The initiative has resulted in a lack of recruits, high personnel costs, the recruitment of troops of dubious quality and inability to properly mobilize during wartime, and it has been detrimental to the idea that citizens have a duty to defend the nation, the report said.
Citing the Ministry of National Defense’s fiscal report, the Control Yuan said that the military has so far inducted about 160,700 volunteers into the armed forces, but an absolute minimum of 175,000 troops are required for the nation’s defense.
This leaves the military with a projected shortage of 14,000 troops, the report said.
Over the past two years, Control Yuan members toured military units, and interviewed enlisted troops and officers nearing retirement to write the report, it said.
Repeated downsizing has led to a situation where enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officers were forced to occupy positions that should have been filled by commissioned officers, the report cited interviewees as saying.
Furthermore, the slow rate of replacement has hampered the continuity of institutional knowledge in many units, as personnel with special skills have retired without anyone taking their place, the report said.
An unnamed officer said at a hearing that he had for three years served as the acting commander, acting deputy commander and political warfare officer for an unspecified group, it said.
Another unnamed officer said a group of 12 volunteer officers and enlisted troops had reported to a unit, but two weeks later, all but two had quit, the report said.
The military is addressing the issue by diversifying its sources of recruitment, raising wages and benefits, improving conditions of service and collecting necessary data for further improvements, ministry spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said on Saturday.
The military hopes the public will rally behind the nation’s defense policy, he said.
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