DEFENDING TAIPEI: The shoulder-launched systems are lightweight and mobile, making them difficult to target in an urban environment, an unnamed defense official said
Taipei Times
Date: Sep 05, 2018
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Military Police Command plans to buy 445 indigenously designed Kestrel missile
A Kestrel shoulder-launched missile system developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology is exhibited on March 30. Photo: Lo Tien-pin, Taipei Times
launchers to defend the capital against assaults by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), sources said on Monday.
Purchases would be spread over two years from next year and the missile launchers would be issued to military police units garrisoned in the Taipei metropolitan area, especially those guarding the Boai Special District (博愛特區), which is home to several ministries and other government buildings, they said.
The Kestrel missile launcher is a disposable, single-shot, shoulder-launched weapon system that fires either a high-explosive anti-tank warhead to engage vehicles with light to medium armor, or a high-explosive squash head to use against buildings.
Thus far, the version of the weapon developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has only been issued to the marine corps.
The purchase would enable military police to better defend Taipei against decapitation strikes, such as airborne, airmobile or special operations assaults, by the PLA, a defense official said on condition of anonymity. [FULL STORY]