An air defense exercise with a live-fire drill was held in Pingtung on Tuesday with President Ma Ying-jeou in attendance to observe the event, which turned out to be an embarrassment for the military, as more than 30 percent of the missiles fired that day failed to hit the targets. Displeased with the result, the Commander-in-Chief has demanded an immediate improvement.

The Ministry of National Defense staged an air defense missile exercise on Monday at Pingtung's Jioupeng Military Base.

The exercise, which was the largest since President Ma Ying-jeou took office, failed to meet expectations.

The first Sparrow missile fell out of the air ten seconds after being launched, while the second overshot its target and failed to explode.

The MND fired 19 missiles during the exercise, including Sky Bows, Hawks, Sparrows, and Stingers, but only 13 hit their targets.

Apart from calling on the military to review the exercise, Ma also noted that the missiles were all defensive weapons and that Taiwan has no intentions of getting into a cross-strait arms race.

As Ma personally observed the exercise and the exercise coincidentally occurred on the same day as Chinese President Hu Jintao's arrival in the U.S., speculation ran rampant on Monday.

In response, Ma reiterated that the exercise and Hu's U.S. visit were unrelated, and that the military holds annual exercises for the media and public.

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