The army is reclaiming command of Taiwan’s reserve brigades in a major reorganization of military structure, the Ministry of National Defense-run Youth Daily News reported yesterday.
The changes to the Armed Forces Reserve’s command structure are intended to streamline logistics and enable the rapid integration of activated reservist formations with active-duty military units, Sixth Army Corps Commander Lieutenant General Chen Wen-hsing (陳文星) said after inspecting the headquarters of reservist units affected by the reorganization.
Integration of the reserve brigades into theater commands would facilitate accelerated wartime mobilization of reservists, improve operational command and control, and help close the gap in training and equipment readiness levels between regular and reserve units, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
Those capabilities are key to the armed forces’ mission of defending the homeland in light of the capabilities of adversaries and operational requirements, he said.
Reserve brigades must train troops in the missions that are most relevant to the operational environment of the theater, arrange mission and terrain-appropriate quartering, and make full use of local resources, he said.
Reservist units must be intimately familiar with the terrain of their area of responsibility to facilitate the effective deployment of units on a tactical level to defend territory and support the regular army in combat operations, he said.
The army’s theater commands are to formally take control of Taiwan’s 20 reserve brigades from the authority of 18 local governments on Jan. 1 next year, a defense official said on condition of anonymity.
The reorganization of the reserve brigades is a direct response to criticism from US officials, lawmakers and analysts that reservists lacked adequate training and equipment, the source said.
The decision is the latest in a series of reversals in the nation’s policy regarding command over reserve forces, which has oscillated between the army and civilian authorities.
In 2023, the ministry established the All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency, giving it control over the reserve brigades, which previously were under the command of the army, only to reverse the decision within six months.
In February, the ministry returned the reserve brigades to the agency’s control, but yesterday’s announcement reversed that once more.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
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