The Military Police Command plans to buy 445 indigenously designed Kestrel missile launchers to defend the capital against assaults by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), sources said on Monday.
Purchases would be spread over two years from next year and the missile launchers would be issued to military police units garrisoned in the Taipei metropolitan area, especially those guarding the Boai Special District (博愛特區), which is home to several ministries and other government buildings, they said.
The Kestrel missile launcher is a disposable, single-shot, shoulder-launched weapon system that fires either a high-explosive anti-tank warhead to engage vehicles with light to medium armor, or a high-explosive squash head to use against buildings.
Photo: Lo Tien-pin, Taipei Times
Thus far, the version of the weapon developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has only been issued to the marine corps.
The purchase would enable military police to better defend Taipei against decapitation strikes, such as airborne, airmobile or special operations assaults, by the PLA, a defense official said on condition of anonymity.
With the missile launchers, the military police could launch mobile counterattacks in urban combat and retake crucial governmental structures, the official said.
The lightweight weapons could be deployed in high-rises or transported in vehicles, making them difficult to counter in an urban environment, the official added.
To bolster the capital’s defenses, the military has garrisoned an additional marine battalion at the Fuxinggang (復興崗) military base in Taipei and formed the Quick-Reaction Company at the 202nd Military Police Regional Command, the official said.
Asked to comment, the Military Police Command confirmed that it plans to buy the Kestrel missile launchers to defend Taipei.
Anti-armor weapons could engage various hostile vehicles and high-value targets, disrupt tactical formations, sap morale, delay troop movements and shatter the enemy’s will to fight, the command said.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS