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.
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