Taiwan's military has admitted its standard rifle rounds cannot pierce Chinese body armor, a problem it now plans to fix by buying harder ammunition.

• Taiwan's own armor plates can stop China's steel-core rounds, but its regular bullets cannot get through Chinese plates.
• The army will receive 55,000 steel-core rounds next June, and from next year most ammunition purchases will be steel-core.
• Front-line combat units already have the new armor plates; garrison and second-line troops do not.
• Lawmakers are pushing the military to drop older police-grade armor standards for tougher army standards, as the US and NATO review their own.

Outlook: Expect steel-core rounds to become Taiwan's default purchase while armor upgrades slowly reach rear units.