An experimental volunteer program for the military is set to be launched on March 1, offering 647 jobs for youths aged between 19 and 26, the Ministry of National Defense has announced on its Web site.
The new recruits will be the first volunteer soldiers since 1956, when the compulsory military service system was launched. The program marks the greatest change to that conscription system in four decades.
The experimental program will become the basis for the ministry to raise the ratio of volunteers at all levels -- troops, non-commissioned officers and officers. The objective is to create a military that is 60 percent volunteer and 40 percent conscript. The current ratio of volunteers to conscripts is around 1 to 3.
The starting salary for a volunteer will be NT$27,105 per month. The ministry says that is relatively good pay in comparison with equivalents in the civilian job market.
The pay will be raised twice during the three-year term that a volunteer has to serve.
The ministry announced the volunteer plan last September but the details and concrete steps of the program were not worked out until recently.
The ministry says application forms for the program will be available soon.
The ideal candidates will be young men between the ages of 19 and 23 who have not done their military service or those who have served their conscription term but are under the age of 26.
Volunteers must be senior high school graduates. It is expected that a considerable number of college graduates will apply, considering the current job market.
The three branches of the military each have one battalion that will accept volunteers. The army has a missile battalion, the navy has a marine infantry battalion and the air force has an aircraft-repair and maintenance group.
The missile battalion, which operates the Tien Kung-series air-defense-missile systems, is hoping to attract volunteers with college degrees in electronics, electrical engineering or engineering.
In an article posted on the defense ministry's Web site, Major Liu Tsao-wen (
"We now depend on conscripts as the main source of manpower. Conscripts just have to serve one year and 10 months. Before joining our unit, they will spend one month at boot camp and another four months in specialty training," Liu said in the article.
"Once into out unit, these soldiers will need some more time to learn and adjust to the environment. As they become mature in experience and skills, they are nearing the end of their service term," he said.
The volunteers are expected to help maintain the experience and skills the military needs since they have to serve for three years and can then choose to stay on for another one to three years.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS