Three members of the Control Yuan have demanded that the Ministry of National Defense address the navy’s negligence in drills and devote more resources to its military academies to bolster Taiwan’s combat capabilities.
Wang Mei-yu (王美玉), Lai Ting-ming (賴鼎銘) and Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠) issued their criticisms as part of an investigative report that was reviewed and approved internally on Sept. 21, a Control Yuan statement said yesterday.
Among the areas found to be deficient, they were critical of the navy’s lack of shooting drills and the poor test results of one of its newest vessels.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
For example, the Naval Fleet Command has not held any surface shooting drills or maintained or trained people on the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System installed on its vessels for three years, the statement said.
Also, the members found the navy’s newest Tuo Chiang-class corvette, the ROCS Ta Chiang, tested poorly during drills, and there was no re-examination of its combat capabilities as required in related regulations, the statement said.
Based on that “negligence,” they advised the ministry to hold regular live-fire exercises utilizing those systems to strengthen its vessels’ readiness for an emergency or even war.
The Control Yuan report was also critical of military schools and academies, according to the statement.
The schools, which are aimed at helping commissioned and non-commissioned officers develop applied science and technical skills, had not provided enough resources and support to teachers, students and researchers, the statement said.
Those shortcomings have meant that 40 percent of teachers have not received mandated promotions in the last eight years, and academic thresholds for selecting students have slid annually, especially in the area of English, it said.
It highlighted a rising drop-out rate among students in military schools, a problem that the military’s counseling system, along with other offices, should investigate, check and amend.
It also found problems with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), set up in 1998 to attract more college students to the armed forces during their vacations and after graduation, through lower tuition and other financial incentives.
The report has also found that the service periods of students enrolled in the ROTC were shorter than the service periods of students in military academies, yet students graduating from both systems were able to obtain the same ranks and positions.
That has raised a potential problem of students preferring to join the military through the shorter ROTC program, which could further hurt military academy admissions in the long run, the report said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
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
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
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