Eighty-four military personnel who have been trained in the US to operate the M1A2T Abrams tanks are slated to return to Taiwan in November to become instructors in the training next year, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in its budget report to the Legislative Yuan.
The 84 people were sent to the US for a 350-day training after Taiwan procured 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks, with the first batch of 38 tanks scheduled to arrive by the end of this year.
Instructors would administer the educational training in February next year and compile the training’s guidelines and curriculums, the ministry said.
Photo: Reuters
The procurement of M1A2T battle tanks, which cost about NT$40.5 billion (US$1.27 billion), was intended to bolster the nation’s defense capabilities in northern Taiwan.
The addition of M1A2T battle tanks to the military’s armored vehicle fleet would greatly enhance its protective power, mobility and combat efficiency, the ministry said.
The MND is reconstructing facilities in Hsinchu County’s Changan (長安) and Kengzikou (坑子口) areas for training on M1A2T battle tanks.
In other news, the MND said it is to test the 6.8mm-caliber rifles developed by the Armament Bureau by the end of the year.
The bureau last year developed the rifle as part of the US military’s “Next Generation Squad Weapons” program, and 10 of such rifles would be handed over to the armed forces to be tested by the end of the year, a military source said on Saturday.
Specifications of the new rifle have not been made public. The program was created by the US Army in 2017 to develop small arms fire-control systems with a 6.8mm cartridge to replace the 5.56mm M4 carbine, M249 SAW light machine guns and 7.62mm M240 machine guns.
The Taiwanese military follows NATO standards and uses 5.56x45mm bullets for T91 and T112 assault rifles, 7.62mm bullets for light sniper rifles and 12.7 mm bullets for heavy sniper rifles and machine guns.
The caliber of a firearm is directly proportional to its power and shooting range. However a rifle with greater caliber adds to the weight that military personnel must bear and therefore limits their mobility.
According to the US Army, a 6.8mm-caliber rifle weighs about 3.7kg and can accommodate 20 bullets in the cartridge, the army told the Legislative Yuan in a written report earlier this month.
By contrast, a T91 assault rifle weighs 3kg and can contain 30 rounds, the report said.
The ministry has budgeted about NT$8.1 billion from this year to 2029 to procure XTS112 assault rifles, an upgrade from T112 rifles, the report showed.
Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) on Thursday said that the ministry plans to procure 86,114 XTS 112 assault rifles to be used by the army, the military police and the reserve forces.
They would be given optical sights, internal reflector sights and laser sights to be added to the rifles based on their respective tasks, he said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS