A group of conscripts doing one-year mandatory military service yesterday fired domestically made portable rocket launchers during a media event in Tainan.
In the live-fire exercises at the Southern Taiwan Military Training Center, conscripts who spent several weeks training with portable Kestrel missile launchers fired several rounds from the domestically built weapon system.
Each conscript carried the launchers on their backs before firing them in kneeling positions from their shoulders under the supervision of instructors.
Photo: CNA
Most of the rockets hit targets about 200m away, but one of the launchers did not fire, reportedly due to a malfunction.
The exercises were also meant to test conscripts’ ability to deal with weapon malfunctions.
The training center’s deputy commander, Colonel Yu Shao-jui (余紹睿), said that the launcher that failed to fire would be given to its developer, Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwan’s top military research institute, for further examination.
The 110cm-long Kestrel weighs 5kg, fires 67mm rounds and has a range of 220m.
The launcher is made from fiber-reinforced plastic and features an optical sight as well as a mount for a night vision scope.
The conscripts were part of the first group that began their one-year compulsory service earlier this year after Taiwan extended military service to one year from four months.
The decision to lengthen the period of compulsory military service for Taiwanese men was aimed at strengthening the nation’s combat readiness in the face of threats from China, the government said.
Other steps have been taken on that front, including updating training regimens, providing conscripts with new helmets and bulletproof vests, and purchasing new mortars, cannons and machine guns.
The military is mainly a volunteer force of about 215,000 people, with conscripts serving in a supporting role.
As of June, there were 152,885 active-duty voluntary military personnel in the armed forces.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS