September 5, 2021 – Taiwan Wire Service

Taiwan is set to start construction of two tank training facilities in Hsinchu County next year as it is scheduled to take delivery of 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks from the United States from 2024-2026, according to the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND’s) budget plan.

The Army has approximately 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger and M60A3 tanks, which have been in use for more than 20 years.

The military has compiled a budget of about NT$40.5 billion (US$1.45 billion) for 2019 to 2027 to purchase 108 M1A2T tanks from the U.S., which are expected to be assigned to the Sixth Army Corps in northern Taiwan.

Of the M1A2T tanks, 38 are scheduled to be delivered in 2024, 42 in 2025 and 28 in 2026.

According to the MND’s budget proposal, which has been submitted to the Legislature for review, more than NT$4.39 billion is to be allocated for the production of military equipment and the construction of facilities related to the operation of new tanks.

The Army proposed a budget of NT$450.79 million and NT$1.19 billion, respectively, to build training facilities at the Chang’an army base in Hsinchu’s Hukou Township and Kengzikou in the county’s Xinfeng Township.

Construction of the planned facilities for tank driving and shooting training is set to start next year, according to the MND budget proposal.

The Chang’an site will be equipped with challenging purpose-built tracks for tank driving training, including straight and flat segments as well as steeper and curved sections, and a sub-caliber shooting range for M1A2T tank shooting exercise.

The Kengzikou training center will feature a state-of-the-art multi-use shooting range facility to enable tank firing at night and while moving, according to the proposal.

The military also plans to allocate NT$900 million over a three-year period from 2022-2025 to build bunkers that will improve the survivability of armored vehicles, better protect military soldiers and boost military combat capabilities.

In preparation for receiving Taiwan’s first batch of U.S.-made M1A2T Abrams tanks, U.S. military officials recently completed a fact-finding mission in Taiwan where they surveyed tank maintenance and training capabilities, according to a military source.

The Army is also scheduled to dispatch 84 personnel to the U.S. to receive training in 2023, according to the source.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Taiwan on Sunday reported six new COVID-19 cases, including a kindergarten teacher who lives in New Taipei, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

Of the new cases, two were transmitted domestically and four contracted the disease overseas.

The two domestic cases are a husband and wife who live in Tucheng District, New Taipei. The husband developed a cough, fever, headache and fatigue on Sept. 1, and tested positive for COVID-19 at a hospital on Saturday.

His wife, who works as a kindergarten teacher, tested positive on Sunday morning. She had previously received one dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, according to the New Taipei Department of Health.

The kindergarten’s 42 students and 10 other employees have been asked to quarantine, and the school will remain closed for two weeks. The city department is still looking into how the couple became infected with the disease, it said.

The four imported cases reported Sunday were a Taiwanese national and three foreign nationals who recently traveled to Taiwan from the United States, Serbia, Burkina Faso and Japan.

Speaking at the daily CECC press briefing, Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (???) said that there were no new cases linked to EVA Airways, one of Taiwan’s major carriers, on Sunday.

Over the past two weeks, three cargo pilots at the airline and the son of one pilot have tested positive for the disease.

The first of the four cases, involving one of the pilots, was announced by the CECC on Aug. 28. Genome sequencing results have shown that he was infected with the Delta variant of the virus, though all of his 26 contacts in Taiwan have tested negative for the disease.

The remaining three cases — involving two pilots who had flown to Australia together and the son of one of them — were confirmed on Sept. 3.

Chen said Sunday that of the 315 contacts of the two pilots, 269 had tested negative for COVID-19 and the results of 45 others were still being processed. The only positive test result was the pilot’s son.

The son is a student at the Affiliated Taoyuan Agricultural and Industrial Senior High School of National Taipei University of Technology, and 2,880 potential contacts of his have all tested negative for COVID-19, Chen said.

To date, Taiwan has confirmed a total of 16,019 COVID-19 cases, of which 14,369 are domestic infections reported since May 15, when the country first recorded more than 100 cases in a single day.

With no new deaths reported Sunday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the country remained at 837, with all but 12 recorded since May 15, CECC data showed.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Day: September 5, 2021

Taiwan to start building tank training facilities next year

CORONAVIRUS/Taiwan reports six new COVID-19 cases, including kindergarten teacher