Taiwan’s defense ministry is trialing a new military training system aimed at ensuring Taiwan’s armed forces are ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice. That’s the word from Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng on Monday.
Chiu says Taiwan is facing an unprecedented rise in the number of flights by Chinese war planes through Taiwan’s air defense zone. He says a few years ago, Taiwan would see around 300 Chinese war planes enter its air defense zone every year. But Chiu says this year, there have already been over 500.
Chiu says that’s why the defense ministry is making sure it is prepared for all eventualities. He says it is vital to ensure Taiwan’s soldiers are ready for battle.
Chiu says under the new training regime, people doing mandatory military service will be deployed in Taiwan’s regular military after finishing training. Currently, conscripts born after January 1, 1994 only have to complete four months of military training, and do not join the regular forces.
The new system will see conscripts complete five weeks of training, before joining the regular forces for a further eleven weeks.
The defense ministry also plans to randomly select a group of service members every year to go Taiwan’s outlying islands for special training.