Nearly 9,000 rounds of rifle ammunition were stolen from an air base in Taoyuan County in the largest theft of military ordinance in a decade, officials at Air Force General Headquarters said yesterday.
The missing 65-K2 ammunition was likely removed by more than one person who broke into a tightly-guarded munitions depot through a back window, said officials at the Taoyuan air base. The base, located in Pateh township (八德), is used mainly as a training center for sidelined F-5E jet fighters.
The window, which had been covered with a metal grate, was opened using a hydraulic cutting instrument, air base officials said.
Air base officials said they suspected that the theft was an inside job since the depot was tightly guarded and the thieves were able to get in undetected. Theft of weapons by military personnel is punishable by death, according to military laws under which such crimes are tried.
The ammunition -- approximately 8,900 rounds in all -- was reported missing at 8am yesterday after duty guards conducted a routine check of the facility.
The ammunition, which had been stored in eight wooden cases, might have been stolen several days earlier since base personnel do not check all munitions on a daily basis, said military officials who asked not to be identified.
Major Yu Li-chen (
The theft of such a large amount of ammunition from a tightly-guarded spot shows that the depot was not sufficiently secure, Yu said.
"Usually ammunition storerooms in military units are secured with metal gratings and alarms on the windows, but there are no alarms in the depot where the theft happened," Yu said.
Someone could enter and leave the facility undetected through a window out of the guards' line of sight, he said.
The last major theft of military ordinance happened in 1991 at another base in Taoyuan County. An army major stole 1,000 rounds of M-16 ammunition and dozens of grenades to sell to gangsters. After being caught and tried, he was sentenced to death and executed shortly after conviction.
In August, four cases of munitions past their service date were stolen from an army division in Tainan. The Army's general headquarters sent a top-ranking official to take charge of the investigation, but the case has yet to be solved.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
RSS