The armed forces yesterday held a major live-fire drill in Pingtung County, weeks after the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration was accused of being soft on national defense for not using live ammunition during the Han Kuang series of exercises in April.
The Lien Yung exercise, which Ma attended, was held at the Tri-Service Joint Training Base at Paolishan (保力山) in Henchun (恆春), Pingtung County, the nation’s only base for live-fire exercises of this magnitude.
In all, 935 members from the army, air force and navy took part in the drill, which involved F-16A/B aircraft, AH-1W attack helicopters, OH-58D reconnaissance helicopters, CM-11 battle tanks, M109 howitzers and Javelin anti-tank missiles, as well as a variety of grenade launchers and rifles, all aimed at targets on the flank of the mountain.
Photo: CNA
The 584th Armored Brigade, based in Hukou Township (湖口), Hsinchu County, and the 601st Air Cavalry Brigade, based in Longtan Township (龍潭), Taoyuan County, comprised the bulk of the forces.
During the operation, a Knox-class frigate set up a naval air defense perimeter at sea.
The Lien Yung exercise, one of three tri-services exercises held routinely, takes place on a rotational basis every 18 months, following five weeks of training. Yesterday’s event was the culmination of the 584th’s training.
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
A military official told the Taipei Times after the exercise that media disapproval of the absence of live-fire exercises during Han Kuang in April was the main reason reporters had been invited to attend Lien Yung.
Ma and the military maintain that the decision to forgo live ammunition usage during Hang Kuang — the nation’s largest series of exercises — stemmed from regional safety considerations and efforts to minimize the inconvenience caused to local residents.
The official also said that live-fire exercises did take place during Han Kuang, but that those were not publicized.
This was the second time since Ma took office in 2008 that the media had been invited to attend the drill.
In a 10-minute speech following the exercise, which he deemed “admirable,” Ma reaffirmed his commitment to national defense through a three-pronged approach of institutional cross-strait rapprochement, the alignment of national defense and diplomacy, and further participation in the international community. He also said that in the next four years, Taiwan would continue to acquire weapons from abroad that it cannot develop domestically.
Ma’s remarks came as it is becoming increasingly clear that Taiwan will abandon its efforts to acquire 66 F-16C/Ds from the US.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS