President Tsai Ing-wen shoulders a Taiwan-made bazooka

President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday carried out an inspection of a Marine Corps base in Taoyuan, where she shouldered a Taiwan-made rocket launcher, saying it was "light and handy."

During Tsai's inspection tour of the 66th Marine Brigade base, she was briefed on some of the weapons systems used by Taiwan's Marine Corps, and she showed particular interest in the Kestrel anti-tank rocket launcher, an individual shoulder-launched weapon system developed by the military's top research unit, National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology.

Tsai then picked up an unloaded Kestrel and balanced it on her shoulder, saying it was "relatively light and handy."

Made of fibre-reinforced plastic, the Kestrel rocket launcher is 1.1 metres long and weighs 5 kilograms. With a range of 400m, it has an optical sight and a mount for a night vision scope.

According to the military, 292 Kestrel rocket launchers have been deployed on the Taiwan-controlled Dongsha and Taiping islands in the South China Sea, in response to China's growing presence in the disputed area.

On Thursday, soldiers at the Taoyuan Marine base also showed Tsai the FGM-148 Javelin, an American-made portable anti-tank missile, a weapon that has proved effective in Ukraine's defense against Russia's invasion.

After the Marine base tour, Tsai visited two other military units in Taoyuan, inspecting the Army's Chemical Biological Centre and the National Defence Medical Centre's Institute of Preventive Medicine.