The military’s combat-ready troops have an average personnel-to-division rate of about 20 percent understrength, said Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center in a report reviewing the Ministry of National Defense’s fiscal 2025 budget showed.
The Budget Center said that while national defense spending has increased to record highs in recent years, there is a worrying trend of a declining number of volunteer soldiers.
The ministry’s fiscal year 2025 budget showed that total positions in the all-voluntary force would decrease by 5,486 people, or about 11 battalions, compared with this year, it said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The reduction in personnel is mainly comprised of low-level non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and privates first class, it said, adding that the military might lose more than 9 percent of its NCOs and senior soldiers.
While the ministry has not explained the reduction in funding, the center surmised that the number of recruits for the military in the first half of this year is lower than in previous years.
The military achieved its goal of becoming a volunteer-only force in 2019, seeing a total of 164,000 individuals enlisted in 2021, it said.
Total enlisted personnel in 2022 and last year dropped 5,492 and 4,706, respectively, and as of June, the total number of enlisted personnel has fallen 1,801, it said.
This year’s enlisted personnel is the lowest since 2018, it said.
Category one combat troops were about 20 percent understrength as of June, it said.
Category one refers to company-level troops in the army’s infantry, mortars and artillery, and armor units; navy personnel serving aboard ships and the marines; the air force’s anti-air units; the 202nd Military Police Command and anti-air missile command.
About 11 separate military equipment purchases are coming to a close over the next few years, and the lack of personnel to operate said equipment is worrying, the center said.
The center urged the ministry to mull how to resolve the issue of understrength combat forces before allocating funds to purchase high-cost military equipment.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS