The Executive Yuan is next week expected to approve a special bill drafted by the Ministry of National Defense for missile production, with a projected budget cap of NT$240 billion (US$8.67 billion), a Cabinet source said yesterday.
The Executive Yuan is expected to pass the bill on Thursday next week at the earliest and would forward it to the Legislative Yuan, with a note to prioritize its ratification, the source said.
The bill is offering NT$40 billion more than expected for missile manufacturing, the source added.
Photo provided by the Presidential Office
Another political party source said that the special act and its budget would be given top priority in the new legislative session.
Taiwan has an urgent need to increase its autonomous defense capabilities, the party source said, adding that the military has asked the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to step up the development process so that precision-strike and long-range missiles could start mass production.
The military’s current missile arsenal includes the ground-based Tien Kung-IIB (Sky Bow) and the Hsiung Feng-IIE (Brave Wind) missiles, alongside the air-launched Wan Chien (Thousand Swords) missiles, all of which have a range of between 250km and 600km, the political source said.
The air-launched version of the HF-III, and other missiles with a range exceeding 1,000km, including longer-range variants of the HF-IIE and the Sky Bow-III missiles, are currently in development, the source said.
A hypersonic missile program that has not yet been named, and a mid-range air-launched cruise missile program under the name Yun Feng, are also being developed, the source added.
In other developments, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited the air force’s Air Defense and Missile Command, the Armaments Bureau’s 209 Factory and the Navy Fleet Command’s Hai Feng Brigade.
Tsai urged the brigade’s second squadron, which was established last month, to give their all in the Han Kuang exercises next week.
The squadron includes mobile platforms that would deliver HF-III missiles, and its performance in the Han Kuang drills would help the military evaluate the squadron’s combat capabilities, a source said.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS