What do you think of the ROC military after watching this video? Does the ROC military stack up in comparison to the hard-core training shown in the video?
reztrop -
Apples & oranges, apples & oranges.
The ROK is in a state of constant infiltration, sabotage and attack by the NK. This has led them to a heightened state of training and reality for their military forces. Group 707 shown here is one of their premiere elite groups.
They are a bunch of very efficient life-takers.
But can’t the same be said of the ROC? Except PRC tactics tend to be less overtly aggressive while also using psychological warfare.
You never know when PRC will launch a surprise attack on the ROC. Therefore the ROC military should always be on heightened alert on par with their Korean counterparts, going through the same rigorous training.
I heard that ROK Special Forces are noted for their hand-to-hand combat derived from martial arts. They had the highest kill ratio during the Vietnam War, killing numerous Vietcong in one-on-one combat with very little casualties of their own. The Vietcong were scared to death of the Koreans and refused to engage them in combat.
But will the PLA be scared stiff of the ROC military?
[quote=“reztrop”]But will the PLA be scared stiff of the ROC military?[/quote]IMO, and that of quite a few ‘interested observers’,…no, they will not be “scared stiff of the ROC” military.
The current estimate is that less than 20% of ROC forces will actively agress a PLA attack on Taiwan.
:roflmao: … I doubt even the “Budapest Girls Under 10 Choir and Flower Arranging Team” would be anything more than mildly amused by the ROC military… anyone at all, scared stiff, ROC military?.. never in a million years…
As civilian leadership over military becomes the norm almost the world over, its not how good you train or equip that matters, but whether there’s a clearly defined enemies and the necessary will to fight them.
In Taiwan thats as screwed up as it gets. The Ministry of Defense can publicize alarming reports on Chinese missile threats all they want, but with the Taiwanese officer corps heavily aligned with the Blue camp, one wonder whether the Chinese Communists are still considered the bitterest foes that they once were by the regular troopers.
Or do they watch ETTV or CTI too? And think China is the promised land for when they finish their service and go into business?
But hey some of those deadly combat skills may turn out to be very marketable in China too. With the growing economy and business, there will no doubt be needs for private security. And needs for aggressive (and perhaps illegal) business practises that necessitate those private security.
With the sheer numbers of Chinese, I don’t see how “special forces” could do very much. China has 50 times more people, conscripts men and women alike, and even has a military budget, which Taiwan doesn’t seem to have. If Taiwan wants to have any chance of resisting an invasion, surely Taiwan needs missiles, aircraft, and hopefully a huge robot army…
Can they put one of those robots that SK has guarding the border in the beaches of Taiwan, ready for action? I guess those would pretty much pwn some arses in case of a D-Day type of attack.
Or maybe they just bottle the Tamsui river and throw it as a chemical weapon - only god knows what that river has…
I like to joke about the likely wimpiness of the ROC soldiers too, but I am not convinced. Can anyone really demonstrate that they are pussies? Part of me suspects that they aren’t, though I highly doubt they would ever measure up to the Koreans.
I have heard that Taiwanese pilots tend to do very well in competetive exercises with the Americans, often winning dogfight contests. This would actually be quite significant in any cross-strait conflict, since airspace control over the strait would determine whether or not China could begin to mount an attack on the island itself, discounting the missiles of course.
And missile attacks are not very decisive, as recent history in the Middle East shows. Humans are pretty good at surviving them in large numbers, and they tend to just solidify resistance to the attacker. If China were to bomb Taiwan without trying to defeat it, that would actually be self-defeating from the CCP’s point of view.
I’m sure elite forces in the ROC military are just that: elite and very good. Professional soldiers understand their job.
But the general conscript in the ROC military is well-known for being less than qualified. Their term of service keeps dropping (what is it now… 14 months?), during which they mostly live at home during the evenings/weekends. Anecdotally, the Taiwanese that I’ve spoken to laugh about their military service (or that of their children), and talk about how they’re gained weight from sitting around so much.
Maybe they should put the army doing more necessary things, like patrolling up areas against illegal hunting or illegal dumpings. They can do anything good, to improve the army image (and we all know the the ROC Army has not a good page here in Taiwan).
[quote=“cctang”]I’m sure elite forces in the ROC military are just that: elite and very good. Professional soldiers understand their job.
But the general conscript in the ROC military is well-known for being less than qualified. Their term of service keeps dropping (what is it now… 14 months?), during which they mostly live at home during the evenings/weekends. Anecdotally, the Taiwanese that I’ve spoken to laugh about their military service (or that of their children), and talk about how they’re gained weight from sitting around so much.[/quote]
That’s true in any army around the world … these are the guys that clean bathrooms with toothbrushes …