The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today (18^th) clarifies on the media coverage “With over-expanded budget, NCSIST is becoming a monster out of control”:

1. The MND’s budget has always been drawn up according to the needs for weaponry, armament, and critical technologies, which have all been laid out in the “Five-Year Military Capacity-Building and Preparation Program”. Through a top-down, goal-oriented measure, the MND supervises over the research and development of weaponry system; there is no such a thing as “over-expanded budget and resources”.

2. As to the issue that casts doubt on “NCSIST subcontracts the projects it has contracted”, the MND wishes to explain that NCSIST plays the role of system integration in its weaponry and armament R&D and acquisition; as such, it subcontracts non-sensitive, non-core subsystem, and parts and components to outside companies, in the attempt to bring about domestic defense industry’s development. The subcontracting claims made by media is untrue.

3.The “F-16 Sustainable Support Center (SSC), or otherwise known as “Maintenance and Support Center”, is a technology transfer authorized by Lockheed Martin to NCSIST, where the Air Force played the role to use industry collaboration-points to introduce the management model of successful US fleets. This intends to integrate domestic maintenance capacity and further bring about the development of domestic aviation industry. The MND will review the results from stage one and future needs to determine the best execution plan. At the same time, the MND will continue to improve logistics management models for domestic planes, so as to boost domestic aviation industry to upgrade its technologies.

4. The MND carries out various procedures as required under the National Defense Contractor Security Management Mechanism to ensure confidentiality. Everything is under scrutiny and control; there is no risk confidential materials will be leaked. The MND will continue to support policies of national defense industry development, and will take concrete steps towards reaching the goal of autonomous national defense. As such, the MND calls for the public’s support.