Vice Minister of National Defense Chu Kai-sheng (朱凱生) yesterday briefed the legislature's National Defense Committee on the benefits of upgrading the nation's PAC-2 Patriot missile batteries.
The briefing -- which was arranged to answer questions raised last month by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Chi (蘇起) during the review of partial funding for the arms procurement package being included in the ministry's annual budget for next year -- was held behind closed doors.
During last month's review, the committee provisionally approved funding of NT$3.5 billion to upgrade the nation's PAC-2 Patriot missile batteries, NT$6.1 billion to purchase 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and NT$200 million to assess the feasibility of submarines for next year.
However, the request for NT$4.2 million to fund the purchase of PAC-3 Patriot missile batteries for next year was refused.
Pan-blue lawmakers argued that a proposal to purchase the missile batteries was defeated in the referendum held on March 20, 2004, and that the government cannot push for the purchase until three years have elapsed.
The review still needs to be sent to the legislative floor for approval and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers had hoped to keep the door open for the purchase of the PAC-3 missile batteries.
"The [result of the] referendum will become invalid on March 20. It would be a good idea to temporarily freeze the budget [for the missile batteries] rather than cut it," DPP Legislator Tang Huo-shen (
But Su said that the ministry would have to request a new budget as temporarily freezing the budget would be in violation of the Referendum Law (
Su said that Chu's briefing yesterday had helped to convince him that the upgrading of the PAC-2 Patriot missile batteries was worthwhile.
"As Chu explained it, [the military advantage gained by upgrading the missile batteries] is considerable," Su said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS