TAIPEI \u2014 Taiwan’s military has undergone a major reshuffle among its top brass with naval officials rising to top positions \u2014 which could bode well for the service in future budgets. The turnover marks the first time the Navy has taken the top slot of minister of defense since Adm. Lee Jye served from 2004-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Army and Air Force officers have dominated the post since then and budget allocations have favored these services over the Navy, including . These included<\/span> billion-dollar packages for new AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and a midlife upgrade package<\/span> for the F-16 fleet. Now the Navy wants to steer future budgets toward funding new builds of submarines and possibly destroyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Jan.uary<\/span> 27 resignation of the <\/span>Minister of<\/span> National Defense Minister Yen Ming also lacks the conspiratorial or scandal-laden atmosphere of past leadership reshuffles. The chief of the General Staff, Adm.iral<\/span> Kao Kuang-chi, replaced Yen, a former Air Force general, in an atmosphere of goodwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lin Chong-Pin, a former deputy defense minister and vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, said it was a good initiative and Kao and Yen are “both capable and professional officers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adm.iral<\/span> Li Hsi-ming replaced Adm. Chen Yeong-kang as Navy chief, while Chen became a strategic adviser to President Ma Ying-jeou. Army commander Gen.eral<\/span> Yen De-fa succeeded Kao. Deputy Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng became the Army commander. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The administrative deputy defense minister of Defense<\/span>, Lt. Gen.eral<\/span> Shen Yi-ming, was promoted to general and named Air Force commander, replacing Liu Chen-wu, who became deputy defense minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kao’s rise to the top allows the Navy to address past grievances aggresses <\/span>over the defense budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Navy has gotten the short end of the stick in terms of budget allocations over the past decade and would like to see this redressed,” a Taiwan defense analyst said. “Indeed, of the major FMS [US Foreign Military Sales] purchases funded since 2007, only the P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft and the sub-launched Harpoon missiles were Navy programs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the recent sa<\/span>le<\/span><\/span>Taiwan’s recent purchase of surplus US Perry-class frigates “don’t really count, as they are EDA [excess defense articles] and decidedly small-ticket.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n As such, the Taiwan Navy has not seen significant capital investment projects compared to the Air Force and Army in the past 10ten<\/span> years, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The recent new ship constructions signal the long overdue shift in military investment emphasis to come,” which will include four-to-eight submarines, the analyst said. Over the past 10 ten<\/span>years, naval investments have been in low-budget, small tonnage warships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taiwan’s Navy recently took has just taken<\/span> delivery of the first of 12 twelve<\/span>stealthy 500-ton Tuo Jiang-class catamaran corvettes and recently took delivery of<\/span> all 31 of the 170-ton Kuang Hua-6 guided-missile patrol boats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both political parties, the pro-independence-minded<\/span> Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the conservative Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), appear satisfied by the shifts of personnel as each prepares for the next presidential election in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s a good initiative,” said York Chen, a DPP member and defense policy expert. The personnel moves will help with the military’s stability until the election, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n