Posted on 03/21/2005 8:08:42 PM PST by Flavius
Taiwan and Singapore will hold their first joint military exercises in three decades, a move expected to anger China, a report said March 21.
The drill, involving a Taiwan motorized infantry battalion and a Singapore brigade being trained on the island, will be staged in the southern county of Hengchun from late March to early April, the Liberty Times said on its Web site.
Aside from artillery and tanks, Taiwan will mobilize SuperCobra attack helicopters and Singapore will deploy Super Puma helicopters, the report said.
Taiwan’s defense ministry declined to comment on the sensitive report, while China demanded an explanation from Singapore.
“The Chinese side is firmly opposed to countries which have diplomatic relations with China carrying out any type of official or military contact with Taiwan,” the foreign ministry in Beijing said in a statement. “We have requested the relevant country clarify the above report.”
Singapore has been operating three training camps in Taiwan under a military cooperation program known as “Operation Hsing Kuang” (Starlight).
Singapore recognizes Beijing but maintains close links with Taiwan, which sent air force and naval officers to Singapore during the city-state’s early years of independence in 1965.
The report said the United States and Japan would send military advisers to the exercise.
In a joint statement last month, Washington and Tokyo said easing tensions in the Taiwan Strait was part of their “common strategic objectives” and urged China, which has 700 missiles massed opposite the island, “to improve transparency of its military affairs.”
The statement angered Beijing, which slammed the allies’ move as “inappropriate.”
Beijing has been increasingly wary of Washington and Tokyo’s close strategic partnership, seeing it as a potential threat to its goal of eventually reunifying with Taiwan by force if necessary.
Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.
Army establishing new mechanized infantry brigades
By Brian Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Mar 08, 2004,Page 3
The army is in the process of establishing three new mecha-nized infantry brigades, which will become the service's major fighting force in the future, defense sources said yesterday.
The first mechanized infantry brigade is already being formed, while the next two are in the planning stage. The first brigade integrated the Tainan-based 298th motorized infantry brigade with the Pingtung-based 395th armored infantry brigade to form a new type of combat force that the nation's army has never seen before.
The 298th brigade will disappear after the integration. The other two motorized infantry brigades, to be located in the center and north of the country, will soon follow suit.
A senior army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the new mechanized infantry brigade features high mobility and concentrated firepower.
"These brigades will be equip-ped with an eight-wheeled armored vehicle currently under development. They are to become truly mobile forces," the official said.
"The reason for integrating a mobilized infantry brigade with an armored infantry brigade is to concentrate personnel and equipment, which are to become increasingly limited in the next few years as a new wave of personnel streamlining efforts get under way," he said.
In a previous personnel stream-lining program, the Chingshih Project, the 333rd infantry division, of which the 298th brigade forms a part, was reduced to a regional command without any forces under its direct control. The Chingshih Project was completed in 1997.
The three brigades of the division, including the 997th, 998th and 999th brigades, were then detached from the division. Only the 998th brigade has survived, in the form of a motorized infantry brigade renamed the 298th brigade.
But over the past seven years, the three motorized infantry brigades have been found unable to live up to the "motorized" part of their name, since their major form of transportation was marching.
remind me please but a brigade is approx 800-1200 right?
Spacer Homebase
WAR.WIRE
Taiwan army to shop for locally made armoured vehicle fleet
TAIPEI (AFP) Nov 11, 2003
Taiwan's defense ministry said Tuesday that the army has decided to purchase the first locally developed eight-wheeled armoured vehicle rather than to buy from the United States.
"The army has made a breakthrough in the acquisition of expertise on the research and development of a new eight-wheeled armoured vehicle under the 'Yun Pao' (Cloud Leopard) project," defense ministry spokesman Huang Suey-sheng told reporters.
Major General Ho Chiang-hai also denied a report that the army was lukewarm about purchasing the locally developed vehicle and intended to buy combat vehicles from the United Defense Corporation of the United States.
The local model "should be the army's only option," he said.
Ho said the army has completed several prototypes to be subject to field testings and modification before mass production begins in 2006.
Research and development on the armoured vehicle's variants, including surveillance and mortar-carrying designs, he added.
The United Daily News said the new armoured vehicle fleet, which is similar in design to the French-made Piranha armoured vehicle, would be used to replace the army's existing armoured vehicles and some 700 vintage M41-tanks, while M48-Hs and M60-A3s would remain the backbone of the army's tank force.
It said the weapons procurement project could cost the army up to 36 billion Taiwan dollars (1.06 billion US).
The completion of the eight-wheeled prototype marked an end to a long-standing debate in the army over whether the next generation of armoured vehicles should be tracked or wheeled, it said.
Military experts said the choice would suggest that mobility has been given top priority while the army weighs its armaments plan.
China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan should the island declare formal independence.
Camouflaged men in green. Am i in the picture? What do you thing? Taken just before exercise highnoon. Damn! another few days without bathing. Names in no order whatsoever; me, shaleem, hamzah, haleq, adha , bob. In the midst of navigational exercise in Taiwan. Its a bright day, no rain for days, but still we are wet. Fiuh! they really made me work for my dollars.
overed in mud up to the chest, wondering why ... it's called trench digging. Luckily my trench comes with a great view of Taiwan's landscape. Marvelous ain't it. Whats more marvelous was the announcement of endex few minutes after this picture was taken. 
Feel worse than i look. What am i doing in a hole? Firstly, that hole is a shellscrape and my home for one and a half day. You should try sitting in it at 12noon. Eggs would have fried on my helmet. Still, duty comes first, by the way picture was taken when i was off duty ok.
I'm all for it but it sort of reminds me of "Mouse on the Moon."
what is that
an old movie.
oh ... well at least they are trying
agreed, God bless them and more power to them. It's all about liberty. Screw dictatorships. Oppression is so 20th century.
A good stick in the eye to Bejing. :)
Right now China has no chance against a US backed ROC. Better to establish these relationships now than later.
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