By 2011, compulsory military service is likely to be shortened from one year and 10 months to one year, a defense official in charge of conscription affairs said yesterday.
Before this reduction in the term of service can be shortened, the ratio of enlistees to conscripts in the military will be gradually increased, said Major-General Hsia Chih-hsin (夏知新), chief of the conscription affairs section of the personnel department of the Ministry of National Defense.
"We are moving toward the goal of having more enlistees in the military. By 2011, we hope that enlistees will account for 60 percent of our forces," Hsia said.
"The percentage of conscripts is to be greatly reduced to 40 percent. By that time, the service term for conscripts is very likely to be shortened from the current one year and ten months to just one year," he said.
Hsia made the remarks yesterday at a meeting held at the legislature on plans for the decades-old conscription system to be abolished and replaced by one more dependant upon enlistment. The meeting was held by DPP lawmakers and several DPP-affiliated research institutes.
The meeting was held against a backdrop of mounting calls for the conscription system to be replaced with one that will train smaller units of highly trained, better motivated, highly professional troops more capable of modern warfare.
Between the 1950s and 1960s, the military maintained a force of 600,000 troops. But in recent decades the number has been gradually pared to the current 380,000.
Some politicians argue that further reductions are called for.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) proposed during his presidential campaign two years ago that the armed forces should be cut to between 250,000 and 260,000.
Hsia, the highest-ranking defense official at the meeting, explained to lawmakers and scholars why the defense ministry questions the likelihood that enlistment will completely replace conscription any time soon.
Hsia said that enlisting and training the number of non-commissioned officers (NCO's) necessary for a revamped military force would be prohibitively expensive. According to Hsia, each well-trained NCO costs as much as six conscripts, something that is beyond present military outlays.
"By 2011, we hope the armed forces number will be around 300,000. As we increase the number of enlistees, the number of conscripts will stay at the same level. To avoid having too many conscripts in the military at the same time, we will seek to shorten their stay in the service," he said.
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