As part of a push to strengthen defenses around the capital, the marine corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), a source with knowledge of the matter said today.
Two weeks ago, a military source revealed that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the marine corps to increase troop counts in the greater Taipei area.
The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas around Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital.
Photo courtesy of the Military News Agency
This comes after a 2017 decision by the Ministry of National Defense to station the brigade at the Political Warfare Academy in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), the first combat unit based in Taipei, the source said.
The personnel currently deployed to the airport are about the strength of a company, another source said on condition of anonymity.
Plans regarding how long troops would remain deployed in the area or whether their remit would expand to jointly protect Taipei’s Boai Special District (博愛特區) alongside military police have yet to be finalized, the source said.
On the eve of Lunar New Year, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) thanked air force, army and navy for their hard work and sacrifices on behalf of the country.
In photographs released by the Military News Agency, soldiers with marine equipment could be seen in the foreground with commercial airliners and civilian buildings in the background, confirming their deployment to the Songshan airport.
To defend against “decapitation strikes” against the capital, the 66th Marine Brigade has been reorganized as a strategic reserve force directly under the command of the general staff to support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei, the source said.
As part of its reorganization efforts to better support the military police presence in Taipei, the 66th Marine Brigade is to follow the example of the US Marine Corps and remove its armor and artillery units, the source said.
In their place, the brigade would add a drone unit, they added.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS