The Ministry of National Defense has completed the marksmanship refresher summer course for reservists, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday.
The refresher courses are conducted separately at the military’s regional basic training centers in Miaoli County, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien County, with each event lasting a day and held on a Friday earlier this month, the sources said.
Reservists who left the service in the past 12 years could voluntarily pay NT$220 to take part in the course, but must make their own travel arrangements, they said.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Participants were each given the latest combat uniform and a T-91 rifle, which they had to carry at all times and use in shooting and weapon maintenance drills, the sources said.
The courses, which were carried out with instructions from active service troops, included simulator training, manual exercises, shooting fundamentals, live-fire target practice at 25m, 75m, 175m and 300m, and an applied marksmanship certification drill at 175m, they said.
Each reservist fired 67 rounds through the course of the exercise, the sources said.
Trainees used a variety of shooting stances including the standing, half-kneel and prone positions, instead of shooting only from the prone position as was done traditionally, they said, adding that this change would increase soldier proficiency and adaptability.
The main challenges to the efficiency of the military’s refresher training program are a lack of suitable facilities and bottlenecks in the training pipeline, Institute for National Defense and Security Research analyst Hsu Chih-hsiang (許智翔) said.
The structural problem with insufficient training capacity is well-known, but lengthening the term of military service is sure to increase the pressure on the system, he said.
Taiwanese armed forces should expand the refresher courses to include the handling of light and medium machine guns, small unit tactics, simple anti-tank weapons and man-portable air defense systems, Hsu said.
Eligibility requirements should include older reservists if sign-up levels permit, Hsu added.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), who observed one training session on Aug. 11 in Taichung, said she saw the participants were in good spirits and that some of them were women or had taken leave from work.
However, the Ministry of National Defense did not promote the refresher courses enough to get the message out to the public, she said, adding that defense officials should discuss ways of improving the program with lawmakers at the earliest opportunity.
Yunlin National Defense Education Association president Wang Shen-yuan (王伸元), who took part in the refresher course, said rising cross-strait tensions motivated many reserve soldiers to resharpen their skills.
The novel techniques taught in the applied marksmanship part of the training have been particularly instructive for reservists, he said.
The ministry should open more refresher training courses for a broader array of skills to get most of the popular support for the military, he said.
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