Military Rank Structure
A person in the ROC military may be an officer, a noncommissioned officer (NCO), or an enlisted man. He may be serving on either a volunteer or a conscript basis [until 2018], and may be on active duty or reserve status. Since 2000, the service term for a conscript, which previously stood at two years, had been cut to around one year. Military personnel were cut between 2003 and 2008 due to political considerations. The move resulted in difficulty in maintaining combat training and abilities, so transition to a volunteer military system was needed to recruit outstanding, dedicated talent and build up a solid standing defense force.Aiming at recruiting young adults in academic and educational campuses, the MND has sign “Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC)” agreements with 129 out of 139 universities nationwide. Moreover, the MND has signed agreements with 313 out of 506 senior high and vocational schools to offer “Defense Cultivation Classes.” The MND also signed an agreement with National Chiao Tung University to provide accredited courses (Bachler’s Degree) for 285 CCIT cadets, and with National Tsing Hua University to open “Defense Elite Class for Bachler’s Degree). The MND is planning to cooperate with domestic top universities to provide ROTC classes for Master’s Degree in 2020.
Officers
Officers in the ROC military generally come from three backgrounds. They might be graduates of military academies who become career officers, graduates of different specialized military schools who serve shorter terms of duty, or college graduates who have passed a written test to become reserve officers.
Approximately 15 percent of the officers commissioned each year are graduates from different military academies; another 45 percent are graduates of specialized military schools; and the remaining 40 percent are reserve officers.
The ratio of officers to NCOs is about 1:2.4, while that to enlisted men is 1:2.6. Thus, the ratio of officers to soldiers as a whole in the ROC Armed Forces is around 1:5, which is close to the 1:6 ratio of the US Armed Forces, and almost equals that of the Japanese Self-Defense Force (1:4.98).
To improve the professionalism and skillsets of military personnel, the MND has been sending qualified officers to attend master’s and PhD’s degree studies in foreign graduate schools to fulfill the needs of talented professionals in defense technology, strategic studies, education, military medicine, and foreign languages.
Noncommissioned Officers
NCOs constitute the backbone of basic units of the Armed Forces, and are increasingly depended upon to train troops and develop their combat performance. In recent years, however, most senior NCOs have retired, leaving the current proportion of career NCOs too low and the percentage of NCO reservists in service too high. Reservists are on active duty for a very limited period of time, making it difficult for them to keep up with changes in the operation and maintenance of ever-more sophisticated weapons and equipment. Solutions to this problem lie in reconfiguring the NCO organizational structure and recruiting new NCOs.
The basic education for officers is mainly to groom cadets as “officers in commanding positions”having staff and operational skills and qualifiable academic level and military ethos. On the other hand, the basic education for NCOs is mainly to nurture cadets as “highly skillful NCOs” having sound and strong characters and professional skills.
Voluntary Enlistees
Recruitment is one of the major governmental policy implementation efforts. The MND has been recruiting and retaining concurrently to cultivate “long-serving, determined, and experienced” voluntary manpower, so as to create a “fit, elite, and robust” modern combat force. Currently, the manning ratio of volunteers in the services is climbing steadily, and it is anticipated to reach 90% in 2020.
The goal of the recruitment system is to carry out a lean force policy. Recent field training and drills have revealed that voluntary service members have several positive traits, such as serving longer, being more experienced, adaptive, and skillful in operational settings, and being psychologically stable. Their presence is positive to fulfill our recruitment policy and strengthen overall operational capabilities. The MND will spare no efforts to take effective actions to accomplish this policy goal.
Recruited voluntary enlistees receive 8 weeks of Basic Military Training (BMT), whose primary focuses include:military courtesy, physical fitness, rifle operation, and individual combat training (or swimming). They are expected to be “certified as rifleman (or ordinary seaman)” after the completion of BMT. Furthermore, these enlistees are required to attend “live” shooting courses according to their MOSs, and it is hoped that each enlistee can have 2 or 3 MOSs after the completion of BMT to meet the objective of cultivating professionally qualified combat personnel.
Forces at all levels receive swimming training in tandem with station unit training, as well as self aid/buddy aid training to enhance their survival skills. Based on their current physical conditions, service members shall receive combat skill training, such as combat shooting, combat fitness test, and mixed martial arts in realistic battlefield scenarios to sharpen their resilience under severe combat situations and fatigue, and strengthen their battlefield survivability.
Station unit training is centered on defensive operations, and it is combined with combat preparedness operations to sharpen trainees’ physical fitness, combat skills, and individual combat MOSs. Furthermore, certifications for “multiple skillsets” and multiple personnel combo training for weapons are conducted and enhanced to maintain trainees’ competence in combat readiness, and prepare them for upcoming assignments.
In order to rapidly improve the overall defensive capability of the ROC Armed Forces, starting from 2019, the combat preparedness training is extended to a month every season from originally a week.
To push the recruitment system ahead, the Executive Yuan has approved to raise 9 pay and bonus rates, including “location pay (for military/civilian personnel stationed at offshore islands),” “retention bonus (expanded to cover reserve officers/NCOs),” “combat pay of 2nd stage for volunteers (expanded to cover personnel in quick reaction and special services teams of the 202nd Military Police Command),” “volunteer duty pay (company-level officers),” “Command Master Chief’s commanding pay,” “cyberwarfare duty pay,” “signal intelligence (SIGINT) duty pay,” “honor guard duty pay,” and “air traffic controller (ATC) pay.” In order to retain quality service members, proposals for 10 more pay raises are planned, including “operational unit pay grade,” “aviation duty pay,” “ATC duty pay,” “firefighter duty pay,” “location duty pay,” “cyberwarfare pay,” naval duty pay,” “honor guard duty pay,” “paratroop/special services duty pay,” and “counter-intelligence duty pay.”
Conscripts
Regular enlistees who are conscripted by the demands for mobilization of reservists and the requests from the Act of Military Service System shall legally received a maximum 4 months regular military service training, which is divided into two parts: 5 weeks of “basic military training” and 11 weeks of “military occupational specialty (MOS) training.” The training will be organized in two ways: “MOS-oriented training tracks” and “to train in full batch of enlistment.” Starting from 2018, enlistees have to complete a generic shooting training with designated rounds and hours, and pass the validation to be certified. Then they will be listed in the pool of reserve force for future mobilization in wartime.
The Military Service Law of the ROC stipulates that all males in the Republic of China shall fulfill military service. Article 3 of the law states: "Male persons shall be liable for military service on January 1 of the year immediately following the year during which they reach the age of 18, and shall no longer be drafted for service beginning on December 31 of the year during which they reach the age of 45." Citizens who have been sentenced to imprisonment for longer than seven years are prohibited from entering the military.
Under the Military Service Law, military conscription was administered jointly by the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of the Interior. The former was responsible for securing an adequate number of conscripts and training them, while the latter determined the sources of the conscripts and ensures their rights and benefits. Generally, conscripts underwent a minimum of two months of basic training before receiving their 22-month unit assignments.
Male senior high, vocational high, and college students whose studies would be interrupted by military conscription could defer their induction until after graduation. Students who were admitted to a university or college underwent two months of basic training in the summer before their freshman year. Upon graduation, they re-entered the military to fulfill the remainder of their two-year commitment.
Young men in poor health were exempt from military conscription. Those in average health may serve in the National Guard. Draftees from impoverished families may apply for service in this unit, giving them reserve status and allowing them to stay with their families. In addition, the only son of parents who are over seventy may also apply for National Guard service to fulfill his military obligation.
The Implementation Regulations for Substitutive Conscription was promulgated on February 2, 2000, and went into effect on July 1, 2000. Under these regulations, those deemed unsuitable for regular military service could fulfill their required military duties through substitutive conscription, based on interests or specialty. Categories for substitutive conscription include domestic security (police and fire fighters), social services (social, environmental protection, medical, and educational fields), and other categories designated by the Executive Yuan. In 2001, 8,295 eligible young men performed substitutive conscription, and this number increased to 10,055 in 2002.
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