Military conscripts starting their mandatory service this year would be training with drones and Stinger missiles during their eight-week basic training course, building a solid foundation for further specialized training in the next stage, the Executive Yuan’s administrative report issued this week said.
The report came on the heels of a Ministry of National Defense (MND) statement on Jan. 24 assuring the public that the first batch of conscripts serving a year of mandatory service after the program’s resumption on Jan. 1 last year would be adequately trained in all weapons platforms of note.
The statement was issued in response to a report by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) that said the army had only arranged for conscripts to train with Kestrel missiles — not Stinger or Javelin missiles as there was insufficient equipment or the equipment had not been delivered to the training bases.
Photo: Military News Agency via AP
The recruits were not trained to operate drones, the report added.
The ministry said that according to the Adjusted Plans to Strengthen National Defense Forces, some compulsory service members had been introduced to newer weapons platforms, including drones, last year.
It said it had also addressed issues where insufficient platforms resulted in fewer conscripts receiving such training than forecast, with the ministry ordering 400 additional Stinger missiles and the inauguration this month of its Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Training Center.
Dual-mount Stinger simulators — capable of training 12 people at a time — have been completed at the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, allowing soldiers and compulsory servicemen to be more familiar with the platform, it said.
Completing the first batch of compulsory service since the project’s resumption would help the military replenish its talent pool of non-commissioned officers, the ministry said.
The ministry estimated that about 1,800 conscripts, or about 30 percent of the total, have signed on for full-time service in the military.
Compulsory servicemen who completed their training today would boost the ranks of the reserve forces and help the government realize its whole-of-society defense policy, it said.
Army Lieutenant General Lee Jung-hua (李榮華), commander of the Tenth Field Army, on Wednesday visited the Chengkungling (成功嶺) camp to inspect equipment prepared for the training regimen.
The new equipment are highly efficient precision weapons that would test trainers’ ability not only to manage the equipment, but also teach conscripts how to operate it, Lee said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS