The dual-track reservist training program is continuing next year, with 7,000 more reservists required to take part in the more intensive two-week training regimen that began earlier this year, the Ministry of National Defense said in a report yesterday.
Under the program, some reservists undergo two weeks of intensive training twice in eight years, rather than the existing five-to-seven-day regimen four times every eight years, with the aim of improving the combat readiness of Taiwan’s reserve forces.
The two-week regimen, which was launched in March as a trial, is far more physically demanding than the five-to-seven-day regimen and participants spend more time honing their combat skills, including shooting.
Photo: CNA
This year, about 15,000 reservists from across the nation took part in the two-week course, while 97,000 were trained under the five-to-seven-day regimen.
Next year, 22,000 reservists would be sent on the two-week course, which would continue as an expanded trial, while about 97,000 reservists would still complete the old training, the ministry in a report sent to lawmakers for review.
The test results of reservists who participated in the more intensive training regimen this year showed an improvement in their marksmanship, the ministry said.
This year, 13.7 percent of those who took part in shooting tests after undergoing the two-week training passed, compared with only 5.9 percent a year earlier, it said, adding that this was because they underwent 28 hours of shooting practice instead of only 12 hours in previous years.
Of the reservists taking part in the two-week training this year, 9.5 percent passed their combat tests, up from only 5.5 percent the previous year, because they were able to train for up to 56 hours instead of only 12 hours during the five-to-seven-day training, the ministry said.
Regardless of the length of their training, from next year, reservists would undergo training at designated “strategic locations” throughout the country instead of at training camps or military bases as they do now, the ministry said.
Doing so is meant to familiarize them with the locations and buildings they would be assigned to defend in the event that war breaks out, it added.
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