Tue, Jul 31, 2001 page3

• Army forms its first electronic-warfare unit

  MILITARY UPGRADE The armed forces recently tested newly acquired electronic command and control equipment during an exercise between two armored brigades

  • By Brian Hsu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The army has established its first electronic-warfare battalion in an attempt to upgrade its capabilities to the levels of advanced countries, according to defense sources.

  The electronic-warfare battalion was put to the test in a field exercise between two armored brigades in northern Taiwan two weeks ago.

  The battalion is armed with advanced electronic equipment that the army has leased from the US. It is attached to the army general headquarters as an experimental unit.

  The equipment includes a powerful jamming device and an unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle (UAV).

  The exercise was carried out between an armored brigade in northern Taiwan and an armored brigade in central Taiwan.

  It was the first of its kind between two armored brigades since the army replaced traditional divisions with combined arms brigades.

  Combined arms brigades are considered more mobile and efficient than traditional divisions because of their size. Typically a division consists of three brigades, or roughly 6,000 soldiers in total.

  An army official, who participated in the exercise, said the electronic equipment was not used extensively in the exercise, since the main subject of the exercise was not electronic warfare.

  The use of the electronic equipment in the exercise was mainly to collect radio frequency or radar waves used by the two participating armored brigades in commanding and controlling their units and weapons systems, the official said.

  The collecting of radar waves and radio frequencies is carried out to help brigades learn how to jam their enemies' communications and weapons systems.

  Chang Li-teh (張立德), a senior editor with the Defense Technology Monthly magazine, said it was significant that Taiwan's army finally has its first electronic-warfare unit.

  "Our army is quite backward in this area. Even the Chinese military is superior to us in electronic warfare. Each of their first-class army groups has one electronic-warfare battalion," Chang said.

  "It is good that our army is finally moving ahead in upgrading its electronic-warfare capabilities. If the effort continues, the electronic-warfare capabilities of the army are likely to be upgraded to the levels of where advanced countries were in the 1980s."

  The army's establishment of an electronic-warfare unit represents part of the modernization efforts carried out under American technical assistance.

  A defense official, who declined to be identified, said the US has played a major role in the army's establishment of the electronic-warfare unit.

  "The US wants to help the Taiwanese army modernize. It lent a helping hand after understanding how backward Taiwan's army is in terms of its equipment," the official said.

  In its efforts to modernize, the army has built a partial C4I unit. The acronym C4I stands for command, control, communication, computer and intelligence. The unit has a tactical communication system bought from the US, known as improved mobile subscriber equipment (IMSE).

  The army has bought one IMSE unit, which is now deployed in the Sixth corps in northern Taiwan.

  It had plans to buy several more units of the system, but they were halted by the legislature on the grounds that the system is so powerful that it could adversely affect the operation of civil communication channels, among them, cellular telephone transponders.

  The IMSE could be used in combination with the electronic warfare equipment the army has leased from the US to create a

  C4ISR system, which is a C4I unit with surveillance and reconnaissance.

  Chang Li-teh said the UAV, which the army has leased for use in electronic warfare was able to travel long distances to find and jam enemy troops' electronic equipment.

  A similar UAV used by Israel, Chang said, can travel 300km to 400km before it reaches and hits a target like a cruise missile or high-speed anti-radiation missiles.
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