Marine officers and soldiers get off to complete tactical maneuvers after the AAV7 amphibious assault landing vehicle arrives at the stand, Taiwan’s Han Kwang exercise, July 16, 2020. (Courtesy of Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense)
As tensions rise across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense recently confirmed that it will abolish the mainland-era military system to change the name of “corps” to “combat zone” in order to strengthen joint warfare capabilities.
Taiwan’s media “United Daily News” disclosed that Taiwan’s Defense Minister Qiu Guozheng recently issued a military order, the Army Penghu, Huadong Command, the sixth, eighth and tenth army corps, renamed the first to fifth combat zones. From January 1 next year, the names of the army corps will be officially abolished. The company’s main business is to promote the development of the company’s products and services.
The company’s main business is to promote the development of the company’s products and services. How will the new theater command be structured in the future?
Taiwan’s defense minister: combat zone commanders unify the three armies
The concept of the combat zone is in a nutshell, that is, to play a joint warfare, as for the future formation is under study. The concept of combat zones has basically been in place for years, but to implement it from this moment on. 2022 into a combat zone, so that each combat zone commander has a concept, he is a ‘joint chief of staff’, to this concept to promote his work, I think the Ministry of National Defense must jump out and try to make the various military services can work closely together. “
Qiu Guozheng mentioned that in the past, there have also been such as the southern combat zone, whether the Marine Corps general as the commander of the discussion, there must be supporting, not only for the other military services to take up a shortage, the deputy commander should also be considered for military synergy.
The National Army of the Republic of China currently has five major combat zones, the first to fifth combat zones are the Army Penghu Defense Command, the Army Huadong Defense Command, the Army of Northern Taiwan Sixth Army Corps, the Army of Southern Taiwan Eight Army Corps, the Army of Central Taiwan Ten Army Corps, the outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu also have a defense command establishment. The commanders of the corps and defense commands are also the commanders of the five major combat zones, all of which are established as lieutenant generals in the army, and usually use the corps or defense command as their main title, but when a natural disaster strikes and they are engaged in disaster relief or war, they use the combat zone as their main title.
The current army corps and defense command are mainly the army, will some of the future combat zones be mainly the navy and air force? The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.
The ruling party legislator: the abolition of the military corps system has nothing to do with politics
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Wang Dingyu said: “Like the Penghuang Defense Department, it may be facing an attack with amphibious landing navy and air force, or Hua Dong command it faces an attack from the east, the western Pacific Ocean, so it should also be the navy, air force, or even the navy is dominant. In the past, when we were in the era of military corps, we used to have army generals as corps commanders, and then transformed into combat zones during wartime. Since it is necessary to unite peace and war, the commander of the combat zone in peacetime should consider the characteristics of the defense battlefield.”
Wang Dingyu stressed that, in response to the characteristics of different combat zones, different military commanders should be changed, the adjustment of the physique is more important than changing the name.
Some Taiwanese media interpreted that after the corps changed to combat zones, the national army will officially break away from the last military system left behind after the relocation to Taiwan, which has been in use since mainland China.
In this regard, Democratic Progressive Party member of the legislature Zhao Tianlin said in an interview: “If it is called a corps in peacetime, until wartime is called a combat zone, the name of the corps is still based on the concept of mainland China in the past, impractical. The change of the combat zone has no political connotation, no ideology, but the implementation of President Tsai’s concept of unity in peace and war.”
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Su Ziyun, director of the Institute for Defense Strategy and Resources of the National Defense Security Research Institute, a think tank of Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, also argued that the restructuring has nothing to do with politics: “Not at all. You can see that each unit still has the so-called Qiu Haitang, the unit number also still exists, the abolition of the regiment establishment is very far away from the political connection.”
Strategy experts: decentralization can improve the survival rate
Su Ziyun believes that the name change is more in line with the needs of the modern national military chain of command, optimistic about it. In the past, the corps commanders directly commanded ground forces, including the joint brigades, artillery and chemical groups, and naval and air forces had to apply for support through a separate collaboration mechanism. In the future, the establishment restrictions will be broken, and the combat zone commander will be in charge of the ground forces, flight forces, and surface forces in the combat zone to maximize the defense system.
Su Ziyun, for example, the different battlefield needs of each combat zone, for example, the western combat zone may be dominated by army generals, the outlying islands, outer islands, the east may be served by air and sea generals; for example, the eastern part of Taiwan to the sea battlefield, if the navy and air force generals as commanders can be combined with anti-ship missiles, the fighter aircraft anti-ship capabilities to maximum effect.
Su Ziyun analysis, the corps to combat zones can improve the survival rate: “Each combat zone has a complete chain of command, in case the central command post lost contact, each combat zone can play the command, or independent combat functions, a bit like the computer network arrangements. Now all talk about decentralization, into a planetary network, this kind of node can make the network survival rate to the maximum, the army is also the same.”
Su Ziyun mentioned that the implementation of the “level warfare integration” can integrate the reserve mobilization energy, in case of emergency, the commanders of the combat zones can directly combine the military mobilization, reserve brigades and reserve soldiers into the required battlefield, which greatly shortens the time. For example, if the Israeli army is attacked, it can put its reserve forces into the battlefield in as little as 15 hours.
Su Ziyun also said that the Ministry of Defense study the establishment of the Defense Mobilization Agency, including material, financial, health and other administrative mobilization, the future zoning will also be combat zones as the direction of the task.
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