The 401st plant of the combined logistics command, the sole supplier of military maps for decades, has been fighting against the tide of change as paper maps are losing their usefulness to digital ones.
The plant, located in Taichung City, now manages to survive by introducing the concept and technology of "geographic information system" to produce digital maps that could provide vital targeting information for high-tech weapons.
Digital maps could be used as the guide for cruise missiles or fighter jets. They could also provide the basis for a computer-aided war gaming system.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Colonel Huang Chen-tse (
In a recent interview with the Taipei Times, Huang had much to say about the change that helped the plant exist without being deactivated over the past few years due to a services-wide restructuring project.
"Maps themselves are not important [for the military]. They become important only after being incorporated into a weapons system. This is what we are doing," Huang said.
C4ISR
"Digital maps could be a common operation platform for weapons systems and equipment of the three services. It is the basis to a command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance (C4ISR)," he said.
The C4ISR system that Huang referred to is a kind that the military is seeking to build across the services. The system is to be based on technology and equipment provided by the US.
Huang declined to reveal, however, whether the 401st plant is to participate in the construction of the C4ISR system. The 401st plant successfully developed digital maps in 1995 and started mass-production of them in 1999.
"Digital maps could be reproduced very easily since they are stored on CDs. They could also be printed out from a home computer," Huang said.
The 401st plant has developed several other new products on the basis of digital maps, he said. They include a vehicle-dispatch system and an individual digital-map system.
The vehicle dispatch system, which the plant first introduced to the public at the end of last year, features the ability to track a vehicle sent out for a mission throughout its journey.
The system in tandem with a global positioning system (GPS), can help a commander have a full understanding of the location and status of vehicles under his control.
The future warrior
The individual digital map system, made public at the same time at the end of last year, is to become standard equipment for the warrior of the future, and the combined logistics command is responsible for designing and shaping it.
The warrior of the future is to be equipped with a PDA (personal digital assistant) stored with digital maps that will enable him to immediately know his location.
Although the individual digital map system for a soldier has yet to be improved to become a mature product, its civilian versions have been widely used.
Most of the GPS maps that many car drivers are now using for guidance are actually sourced from the digital maps developed by the 401st plant. They are just not as precise as military ones.
Digital maps have also been used to develop a helicopter flight simulator, a product aimed at getting a helicopter pilot familiar with various kinds of terrain. Following digital maps, the 401st plant is developing a satellite map system that could provide three-dimensional effects to the viewer.
"Unlike the conventional map, the satellite map could immediately give a commander an idea of where to put his troops. The map would be very useful in the battlefield," Huang said. Huang said the development is still at an early stage and that much has yet to be perfected.
Privatization
Talking about the future of the 401st plant, Huang said it might be privatized in the mode of government-owned corporation-operated.
"It is all up to the policy of the Ministry of National Defense. We can do nothing but listen," he said.
The 401st plant was established before the KMT-led government withdrew to Taiwan after losing the civil war to the communists in 1949.
The plant has been in Taichung for 55 years. It is one of the only two only production units that the combined logistics command has in Taichung. The other is the 402nd plant which is responsible for making optical equipment.
The plant was the first in the country to import a six-color printing machine, which did not exidst in the civilian sector a few years ago.
It used to have cooperative links with several foreign countries like the US and Saudi Arabia but those links no longer exist .
In 1953, the plant started introducing mapping techniques from the US. The next year, the country signed an agreement with the US on the cooperation between the two sides. The cooperation established the basis of the plant's mapping capabilities.
In 1975, Saudi Arabia became interested in the 401st plant's mapping skills, sending delegates to the plant to inquire about possibility of cooperating.
Over the following years, the plant dispatched on a regular basis technicians to Saudi Arabia to help establish its mapping capabilities.
In the development of digital maps, the plant sought assistance from the US, sending personnel to the US to learn computer mapping knowledge and technology.
Over the past 55 years, the 401st plant has been with the combined logistics command. But starting from Oct. 1, the 401st plant and other production units of the command will be transferred to the military armament bureau under the ministry.
The move is not welcome by all since it does not take into consideration different opinions.
An official with the combined logistics command said the command is happy to get rid of all these production units but that whether the military bureau has the ability to assimilate so many units is still a question.
According to the two defense-related laws -- the National Defense Law (國防法) and the Amendment to the Organic Law of the Ministry of National Defense (國防部組織法), the military has to have an independent armament system.
A partner
To be incorporated into the system are not just the production units of the combined logistics command. They also include the Chun Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST).
With the CSIST and production units of the combined logistics command, the armament system is to become so big it could be equivalent to a service.
Many defense officials have the same worry that the armament system might not be able to absorb so many units since it does not enough personnel to oversee the operation of these units.
Despite the fact, the ministry insists on establishing the armament system according to original design.
With a unified and powerful armament system, the ministry might be better able to achieve the goal of privatizing most of the production units of the military, sources said.
In the future, the military might have to buy most of its daily necessities from civilian companies who have bought the right to operate military factories.
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