“Signal abnormalities” that occurred during a live-fire test of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) earlier this month were caused by a fire control malfunction, rather than signal jamming from China, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday.
Signal errors occurred twice during a missile test at Jiupeng Military Base in Pingtung County on May 12. During the test, 33 rockets were fired. The defense ministry had said that errors were promptly addressed by personnel participating in the test.
The ministry faced questions about the errors in a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which was scheduled to release frozen defense funding.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Signal abnormalities emerged during the transmission of the firing command to the fire control computer, Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told lawmakers.
After addressing the self-diagnostic fault message from the computer following the procedures given by the US weapon systems contractor, testing was resumed, Chen said, adding that the M142 HIMARS is an advanced US weapon system.
After the test, the defense ministry immediately reported the issue to the contractor, he said.
They told the ministry that the HIMARS’ core functions were intact, and that abnormalities were mainly as a result of a known “sporadic software issue” in the computer’s self-diagnostic check, which has been reported by the US military and other countries that use the system, he said.
An update would be implemented as soon as possible, he added.
Chen denied speculation that the Jiupeng Military Base experienced magnetic interference, signal jamming, “GPS spoofing” or other interference from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
“The military had all potential magnetic interferences and signal reception from the enemy in and around the base under control. There was nothing abnormal in this regard during the test,” Chen said.
Taiwan has purchased 29 of the latest HIMARS from the US, and the first shipment of 11 was delivered in October last year.
Separately, the committee decided to release NT$84.5 billion (US$2.82 billion) of frozen funding, with two cases awaiting final approval in the plenary session.
Additional reporting by CNA
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