As the country is about to complete phasing out military conscription by the end of the 2014 in accordance with its plans to have all volunteer military force, lawmakers in Taiwan want to tap the airsoft community in the country to form the "Weekend Warrior" Program. At present military conscripts will need to undergo 4 months of training before being considered as reservists  as required until conscription is fully abolished.

This means that in order to have a ready volunteer force, they need to have trained civilian-soldiers that can be tapped in case of war, especially having a large neighbour with an assertive military in the form of Communist China.

In a the link sent to us by our Taiwan-based airsoft reader, George,  China Post reports that:

The proposal, co-drafted by Lee Tung-hao (李桐豪) of the opposition People First Party (PFP) and ruling Kuomintang's (KMT) Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), is meant to call on the MND to learn from the example of the National Guard in the United States.

The proposal recommends that the MND recruit experienced airsoft players to join special reservist camps. The participants of the program can continue to have their regular jobs during weekdays, but they are required to report to camp one weekend per month for training, according to the proposal.

This proposal reminds me of the April Fools 2014 story of Popular Airsoft which is about the Philippine government mandating conscription of airsoft players to be part of a special reserve force in case of war with a foreign power. The idea is almost the same and perhaps, by a long shot, they got the idea from it.

Taiwan has a vibrant airsoft industry and in fact has more active airsoft manufacturers as compared to other countries in East Asia. The readily available airsoft guns and accessories made by the local manufacturers can readily supply these weekend warriors. The airsoft companies would probably be happy to oblige as this would represent a steady revenue stream from the government.

If the proposed law, which is very much welcomed by the military, gets approved, Taiwan would be the first in the world to consider the airsoft community as an important part of a nation's security. It's easier for them to tap the airsoft community to be its reserve force as its members are willing to conduct military manoeuvre regularly as compared to civilian reservists who are called for exercises every two years.

The proposed law doesn't make it compulsory for airsoft players to join in this program, the Defence Ministry will have to do recruitment. This would be an interesting thing to monitor like how many airsoft players would they be able to recruit and how the program is implemented. Would there be a bootcamp, regular live fire practices, or the usual weekend-skirmish style airsoft activities?

Just imagine, an "Office for Airsoft Affairs" in a Defence Ministry. Does it have a nice right to it?

(Photo Credits: ICS Photos from the Operation Bayard 2013 held in Penghu Islands)