A military weapons plant in Greater Kaohsiung, the 205th Arsenal, is reported to be undertaking programs to manufacture a new series of assault rifles and handguns to upgrade the firearms carried by soldiers and law enforcement officers.
However, it attracted criticism from the media when it was revealed that it had put out an open tender in recent weeks soliciting companies to supply replicas of 10 well-known firearms.
The tender calls for 10 models or BB-gun-type replicas of the Smith & Wesson MP 9 semi-automatic pistol, Beretta PX4 pistol, Russian AK-74 assault rifle, MK47 machine gun, AW 338 sniper rifle and KRISS Vector submachine gun, among others.
The 205th Arsenal is under the Materiel Production Center of the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Armament Bureau, and specializes in the development and production of indigenous firearms, including the T65 assault rifle, T74 machine gun, T86 assault rifle, handguns and ammunition.
A report on online news site Storm Media News quoted unnamed public officials calling the arsenal’s tender “a waste of time” and accusing it of a “lack of professionalism and misguided technical application” for trying to develop the weapons based on replicas.
However, military experts said that showed a misunderstanding of the purpose of the tender, and that real effort and technical expertise is being put into developing the next generation of small arms for the armed forces and law enforcement agencies.
“The tender is to provide the 205th Arsenal’s research and engineering team with new design concepts and firearm innovation ideas from other countries,” said Colonel Chen Chi-yu (陳繼宇), a supervising officer from the Materiel Production Center. “The foreign models in the tender indicate our direction for firearms production. Much effort is being put to developing new lines of indigenous handguns and assault rifles.”
“By developing the firearms at our own factories, with our own engineering teams, we can produce all the key components, spare parts and ammunition, so we do not need to buy from foreign countries and arms dealers, where they hold the core technology and patents,” he added.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
RSS