The armed forces have 155,218 volunteers in active service, the fewest professional soldiers in the military in the past five years, a report published earlier this month by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center showed.
Although the military has received the final deliveries related to multiple arms deals, the weapons systems would likely not prove effective if the nation lacks the necessary number of highly trained soldiers to operate them, the center report said.
The Ministry of National Defense listed a NT$220.5 billion (US$6.85 billion) budget for next year, which represents a 7.67 percent increase in spending over the current year, the report said.
Photo: I-hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
Military investments related to arms procurements are to increase 34.65 percent and would become the fastest-growing spending item in the budget, it said.
Volunteer service members are the backbone of the military’s combat strength, and staffing requirements for professional soldiers are not alleviated by extending the length of the conscription period, it said.
The center said the strength of the volunteer forces peaked in 2021 before declining annually, while many principal combat units designated as Class 1 are below 80 percent of their authorized strength.
The military had 162,039 volunteers in 2019, 164,063 volunteers in 2020, 164,884 volunteers in 2021 and 159,392 volunteers last year, it said.
The dearth of personnel is likely to impede the armed forces’ ability to train and retain soldiers with the skills necessary to operate advanced military equipment, it said.
The program to recruit prospective soldiers and officers through reserve cadet programs embedded in high schools, vocational colleges and universities has not achieved the desired effect, the center said.
Although the Ministry of National Defense has established reserve cadet programs in 410 high schools and vocational high schools since 2018, the number of enlistments from the cadet programs at all levels of schools has fallen every year since 2020, it said.
These programs reported 9,616 enlistments in 2020, 8,293 in 2021 and 7,409 last year, it said.
The drop in enlistments occurred despite the ministry’s steady funding of the programs, which increased to NT$39.89 million last year from NT$14.43 million in 2019, the center said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS