The Ministry of National Defense (MND) plans to ask for NT$319.3 billion (US$10.7 billion) in funding next year, mostly to purchase domestically manufactured weaponry, according to the budget plans it submitted to the Legislative Yuan yesterday for review.
The items on the shopping list include NT$74.8 billion for Tien Kung III missile systems to be delivered over the next decade, Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Chung Shyang unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and Red Falcon anti-armor rockets.
The ministry said the impetus to invest in locally made weaponry is the result of a lack of significant development in negotiations toward foreign arms purchases.
The budget proposal for next year is NT$820 million less than this year’s budget, the ministry said.
Most of the savings came through a reduction in the personnel maintenance budget, which used to account for half the ministry’s overall budget. Proposed personnel costs are NT$920 million lower than this year’s, due to programs to make the military leaner and better trained.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said the most eye-catching item on the list of proposed purchases is the Tien Kung III (Skybow, 天弓) surface-to-air (SAM) system, which would also be the largest order for domestically manufactured arms in recent years.
The contract is for multiple systems to be delivered over a decade and the ministry has already allocated NT$280 million for next year, Lin said.
The system is the newest in the Skybow series and is a replacement for the MIM-23 Hawk missile system. With a purported maximum range of 20km, the Tien Kung III system is designed to counter tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
According to the budget proposals, the deployment of the Skybow 3 variant would enhance the nation’s missile shield ability in terms of medium-range missile coverage.
The ministry said it was also looking into ways to further upgrade the capabilities of the Skybow system in terms of mobility and efficiency.
Despite rumors that the Marine Corps would face personnel cuts, the budget proposals showed the marines’ arsenal would be boosted by 36 more US-manufactured AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicles, Chung Shyang (Red Sparrow, 中翔) UAVs and the Red Falcon close-range anti-armor rockets.
The marines expect to replace its aging LVTP-5 with the AAV-7s, which are expected to cost NT$530 million and be delivered between next year and 2019, the budget plan showed.
Meanwhile, the ministry said it decided to continue the example it set last year by allocating just NT$2 million and NT$500,000 respectively for the potential purchase of US-made F-16C/D jets and the first-stage assessment on diesel-powered submarines. Given the lack of US response to request for such items, the ministry said it did not want to waste resources by allocating more money for them.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS