The Ministry of National Defense is considering producing self-propelled howitzers by converting CM-32 “Clouded Leopard” wheeled armored personnel carriers, ministry spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said yesterday.
A self-propelled gun could be produced by mating the chassis of the 25-tonne, eight-wheeled CM-32 with an M114 155mm howitzer, Chen said.
The new vehicle is only a concept and army units have yet to submit an operational need for it, which would be required for the ministry to move forward with setting manufacturing volume, unit cost and project goals, he said.
Photo: Lo Tien-pin, Taipei Times
The army is studying how the hypothetical artillery piece should be deployed for maximum operational effectiveness, he added.
First unveiled in 2005, the domestically produced CM-32 has been plagued by design flaws and budgetary irregularities during development.
Chung-Hsin Electric and Machinery Manufacturing (中興電工), the main contractor for the CM-32 program, has been accused of falsifying accounting records and buying substandard components from China.
Last year, 12 Chung-Hsin employees were convicted of violating the Business Entity Accounting Act (商業會計法), while legal proceedings against the firm’s CEO and military personnel involved in procurement are ongoing.
The ministry is to stringently adhere to all relevant laws and regulations in future arms purchases, Chen said, adding that it respects the oversight provided by the Legislative Yuan and the media.
The ministry said it plans to expand the CM-32 program from an armored personnel carrier to a family of vehicles with additional roles, including those of mortar carrier, a cannon-equipped infantry fighting vehicle, a mobile gun platform and self-propelled artillery.
In previous reports to the legislature, the ministry said the self-propelled artillery based on the CM-32 would provide fire support for the army’s mechanized infantry brigades and would have high mobility and digital communications.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS