TAIPEI (TVBS News) — With Double Tenth National Day around the corner, troops in Taiwan have been preparing for the annual military parade in front of the Presidential Office. To be part of the show, however, you need at least two months of training and a final, rigorous test.
This means most current conscripts serving just four months of mandatory military service are not qualified to participate in the popular show. At present, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) is also mulling plans to resume the one-year conscription service as plunging numbers of troops and recruits spell concerns for Taiwan's defense.
Currently, the MND plans to expand training classes into infantry battalions while also increasing the number of conscripts from 215,000 to 260,000. Military experts have backed the Ministry of National Defense's plan to resume year-long conscription in 2024. According to Shen Ming-shih, director of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, the advantages are two-fold.
"The first is that there will be more units to accommodate this amount of training whether it’s a four-month training service or the future of one year of volunteer training service or longer," Shen said. "The second benefit is that it expands training classes into battalion-level units."
Even though the MND plans to expand reserve commands to accommodate future changes, many point to the need to change training programs to improve the system. Military strength nowadays goes beyond the total number of soldiers in an army. It is more about training and technology.
Amid rising cross-strait tensions, Taiwan should start thinking of new ways to ready its military with more professional training and comprehensive combat skills.
