The nation’s defense capabilities should be greatly reinforced by the M142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and several other arms packages due for delivery this year, according to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget plan.
The second group of 18 HIMARS launchers should be delivered to Taiwan before the fourth quarter, according to the defense budget plan. The same package includes 20 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles with a range of up to 300km, as well as 864 precision-guided artillery rockets with a range of 70km.
The package would deepen the military’s long-range strike capability and cross-theater fire support, the ministry said in the budget plan.
Photo: Screen grab from the US Army Reserve Web site
Another arms package containing 14 M136 Volcano minelaying systems is scheduled to arrive soon.
The ground-based mobile minelaying system purchased by Taiwan is equipped with antitank mines, rather than antipersonnel mines, the ministry said in the budget plan.
It consists of a vehicle, launchers and mine canisters and is capable of deploying 960 mines in under 12 minutes over an area measuring 1.1km in length and 120m in width.
The system is highly automated and allows operators to set self-destruct timers for the mines at four hours, 48 hours or 15 days, ensuring operational effectiveness while minimizing the risk of harm to civilians, the ministry said.
The army’s last shipment of 28 M1A2T tanks should arrive during the first quarter this year.
A hundred sets of Harpoon missiles and launchers and two of the four MQ-9B “Reaper” drones would arrive this year, the ministry said, adding that they would be used by the navy and the air force, respectively.
Though the air force experienced slight delays for delivery of 66 F-16V block 70 jets, they are expected to arrive at different times this year, along with three sets of MS-110 Imaging Reconnaissance Pod, the ministry said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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