During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday period, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited the Marine Corp’s 66th Marine Brigade in northern Taiwan to conduct an inspection. In addition to providing a morale boost to the troops, the visit’s purpose was to understand the military’s combat preparedness, weapons systems and equipment supplies.
After listening to a presentation on the Kestrel shoulder-fired armor-piercing rocket launcher, Tsai had a go at operating an unloaded Kestrel for herself.
Surprisingly, after news reports of the visit hit television screens, a number of legislators, military experts and media commentators criticized the president for pointing the barrel of the weapon at people, resting her finger on the trigger and for adopting an “incorrect posture.”
These critical voices seem not to understand that the president is not a basic weapons training instructor — her role was to provide the troops with encouragement and support by personally visiting their base.
This should have been obvious from Tsai’s question to the commandant: “Should I hold it like this?” and her interaction with journalists: “I’m testing out its weight ... it’s very easy to use.”
Former US secretary of defense Jim Mattis, in his book Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, said that two vital leadership qualities are exercising initiative and taking advantage of opportunities as they arise. Mattis also advocates the leadership philosophy of “listen, learn and help, then lead.”
The Ukraine military has employed shoulder-fired armor-piercing rocket launchers against the Russians to remarkable effect, and demonstrated the potency of asymmetric warfare.
Tsai’s listening and learning about the domestically produced Kestrel rocket launcher showed the president exercising precisely the leadership qualities advocated by Mattis.
However, during the presentation and instruction on the use of the Kestrel weapons system, given to the president by the 66th Marine Brigade, none of those present would have dared to say to the commander-in-chief that the decisive factor of shoulder-fired armor-piecing rockets is their range and destructive force — and in both respects, the Kestrel falls short.
Range is important because it ensures that the operator of the weapon is as far away as possible from the threat of a tank’s coaxial and turret-mounted machine guns. The US-made FGM-148, Javelin anti-tank weapon and the Swiss-British Next-generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) have ranges of 2,500m and 600m respectively. The Kestrel has a range of only 400m, which would put the operator inside the field of fire of a tank’s machine guns.
Regarding destructive force, the Javelin and the NLAW use a wide angle of attack, which allows them to strike a tank’s roof turret, where the armor is weakest. Faced with tanks that employ composite and reactive armor, or next-generation tanks with rocket-avoiding designs, the Kestrel has a range of only 200m longer than the aging M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon, and only enhances its armor-piercing capability by a further 5cm.
The most astonishing aspect of Tsai’s visit was that lawmakers, military experts and media commentators who are usually supportive of the armed forces have acted completely out of character, using emoji-derived language such as “eye roll” and “shaking head” to suggest that the president committed a serious taboo and made a fool of herself.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who served in the marine corps, on two military inspections inserted his forefinger into the trigger guard of a Barrett M82 sniper rifle and a XT105 assault rifle.
Did the same lawmakers, experts and commentators share their “professional opinions” at the time? It smacks of double standards and partisan politics.
In addition to staunch support from friends and allies, the main reason Ukrainians have been able to independently wage a courageous war of resistance against the Russian military is because the entire country has united together and displayed an iron will to defeat the invaders.
Taiwan, which has terrain and topographical features that would challenge an invading army, can draw many lessons from the Ukraine conflict. Taiwan must ensure that it does not become complacent over its ability to autonomously defend itself, must remain vigilant at all times and must root out Chinese collaborators who are seeking to breach the nation’s defenses from within.
Lu Li-shih is a former instructor at the Republic of China Naval Academy and a former captain of the ROCS Hsin Chiang.
Translated by Edward Jones
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