TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - A total of 17 shortcomings with the Clouded Leopard armored vehicle have been fixed, the Ministry of National Defense said Friday.

The military was responding to a report by the Apple Daily that there were 21 major problems with the eight-wheeled Taiwan Infantry Fighting Vehicle, known officially as the CM-32, including oil leaks and a lack of interchangeable spare parts.

The military said that over the years since the vehicle first came into use, soldiers had gradually found 17 problems, but all of them were addressed by Taiwan’s Ordnance Readiness Development Center, the Central News Agency reported.

The vehicles’ reliability corresponded to the needs of warfare, the ministry was quoted as saying.

The engine has a lifespan of 780,000 kilometers, and each two weeks the vehicle has to cover a distance of at least 5 km, CNA reported, adding that the records from 2011 to 2018 showed a better-than-average performance, without the problems such as the oil leaks mentioned by the Apple Daily.

In a related case, the Taichung District Court was still handling allegations that a contractor had been supplying parts made in China for the Clouded Leopard, the Ministry of National Defense said.

The CM-32 is based on the Irish-designed CM-31 and saw mass production launched in 2007, with 600 vehicles being ordered in its first phase. The project cost a total of NT$700 million (US$22.6 million), reports said.