Mountain companies that have been activated over the past few years are far from being combat capable, the army says in the latest issue of an internal publication.
According to an article in the February issue of the bimonthly Army Journal, the new mountain companies' failure to reach expectations is mainly due to lack of attention from the top.
Colonel Jan Teh-hsing (
"Given that China has adopted a wide variety of tactics to realize its unrestricted warfare doctrine, the chances for it to launch surprise attacks or infiltrations into Taiwan's mountainous regions are increasing," Jan wrote.
"But the mountain companies activated in recent years have yet to be become combat capable because of lack of attention from the top," he said.
His article marked the first time that the military has admitted, through an internal publication, to problems with the companies.
The armed force reserve command, not the army, is in control of the companies, which are scattered across the country.
The companies, comprised mainly of Aborigines, became operational in 1982. The aim was to have one to two companies in each county. They would be manned with a minimum number of commanding officers during peacetime but expanded to full capacity in times of war.
Since 2001, the reserve command, under the lead of General Chen Pan-chih (
Chen, who is now the chief of the political warfare system, was the only military leader to place great importance on the mountain companies.
Huang Wei-chieh (
The problems cited in the article are mainly a lack of material and human resources. Each company is assigned just 17 personnel and they are equipped with old rifles retired from the army, which frequently are in need of repair.
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