Wed, Nov 22, 2000 page3

• Army upgrades combat preparedness

  • By Brian Hsu / STAFF REPORTER
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  To cope with the diversification of China's attack plans against Taiwan, the army has upgraded its ability to react to and deal with an attack to a "ready-to-use" level, the army said yesterday.

  "The army has the capability to handle any sort of contingency and to engage the enemy without any delay. This is due to intensive efforts, taken since last March, in relevant fields," said Major General Kuo Chien-chung (郭建忠), chief of the planning department of the army general headquarters.

  "During this period, we have strengthened the rapid reaction command structure, integrated various C4ISR [command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] systems in the service, and reinforced the operation capability of reconnaissance units," Kuo said.

  "Meanwhile, we expect to reach, by next February, the goal of establishing sufficient personnel and ordnance capacity to train and ready reserve troops as active ones," he said.

  "It is an important task because in the event of a war across the Taiwan Strait, we can't count on the army alone to defend the country or win the war. We have to also make the best use of civilian resources, such as reserve troops. This is how we are preparing for a sure win in the battlefield in the future," he added.

  Kuo made the remarks yesterday at a regular press conference of the Ministry of National Defense (MND) as part of his briefing to the press on the arms build-up of the army at present and in the future.

  Over the past year, Kuo said, the army has focused its efforts on recounting and re-evaluating all the ordnance in the service.

  The army has also been re-distributing extra or retired weapons and equipment in combat units to ones that are responsible for the mobilization and training of recalled reservists.

  "In the past, we have not done much in this area. This February, army commander-in-chief General Chen Cheng-hsiang (陳鎮湘) ordered an overall check this year of all the weapons and equipment in the service in an attempt to put available resources to their best use," Kuo said.

  "We have only three months left to meet the deadline set by General Chen. So far, we have found that the total number of weapons we have now can meet our combat demands. But they are just unequally distributed," he said.

  "We now need to re-distribute the ordnance resources among the combat or reserve mobilization units. We also need to remove extra or retired weapons and equipment in combat units to reserves mobilization units," he said.

  The army has generally been short of weapons and equipment to train its reserves and training units who often don't have much to do during their multi-day recalls. The redistribution of weapons will help to change this.

  "Our arms build-up policy for the moment is to reduce active troops and reinforce reserve ones. By enhancing the training of reserve troops, we can develop some basic combat strength from them," he said.

  "We aim to incorporate civilian resources in the military through exercises," Kuo said.

  "This year's Hangkuang No. 16 exercise is an example of how we are trying to use civilian resources for defense needs," Kuo added.
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