Taipei, Jan. 28 (CNA) In order to build up its national defense capability, the Republic of China plans to acquire six more US-made Patriot antiballistic-missile systems to be installed in central and southern Taiwan.
The defense-upgrade proposal was contained in an administrative report released Friday, which will be delivered by the Executive Yuan to the next session of the Legislative Yuan, the nation's law-making body.
Touching on national defense, the report said that efforts will be made to: amend military strategy; upgrade the armed forces' overall combat capability; implement a troop-reduction policy; modify laws related to national defense; and speed up plans to rebuild the outdated living quarters for military personnel.
In order to strengthen air defense capability, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said efforts will be made to upgrade radar and war operations capability, adding that the nation must acquire more modern radars and adjust radar deployment, and that the MND will hasten construction of the regional war operations center and strengthen the capability of the ROC Air Force war operations center.
In addition to the military's acquisition of six more Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology Institute will speed up its research and development of new anti-missile missiles.
The MND also hopes to acquire US-made destroyers equipped with the AEGIS weapon system in order to build up the naval regional defense capability.
Regarding the troop-reduction policy, the MND said the project will be completed by Jan. 1, 2001. At that time, the total number of personnel in the three branches of the armed forces will be fewer than 400,000. (By Edward Chen)
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