The US Marine Corps and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force have begun a military drill to simulate the retaking of outlying islands in Kyushu and Okinawa Prefecture in a conflict scenario, the Sankei Shimbun reported yesterday.
The drill, commonly known as “Iron Fist,” has been held in the US since 2006 before being moved to Japan for the first time this year, it said.
The large-scale operations are conducted with a possible “Taiwan emergency” in mind, aiming to keep China in check, it said.
Photo: Screen grab from video on US Marine Corps’ Web site
Unlike last year’s exercises, which focused on on-site training, this year’s maneuvers include strategy formulation and command for each unit by the Japanese and US headquarters, to bolster cooperation between higher-level departments, it said.
Scheduled to run until March 17, the militaries are to conduct landing drills on Okinoerabujima in Kagoshima Prefecture and the town of Kin in Okinawa, as well as F-35 stealth jet target practice on an uninhabited island west of Okinawa’s main island.
A Japanese Army settlement in Kumamoto Prefecture would be used as a maintenance base for helicopters, the report said.
About 600 members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade are to land on and recapture occupied islands participating in the drill, it said.
The Japan Self-Defense Forces and the US military earlier this month conducted the highest-level military exercise, Keen Edge, in which a possible Taiwan contingency was set as the main scenario and China as a hypothetical enemy.
In other developments, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology is to conduct this year’s first tests of artillery and uncrewed aerial surveillance and reconnaissance vehicles at Jioupeng Military Base in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州) next month, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Maritime Port Bureau said.
The institute is to conduct the tests on five days — from Wednesday next week to Friday next week as well as March 13 and March 14 — during which the following areas would be under control: between Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里) and Pingtung’s Majhou, as well as between the northwest of Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and the south of Green Island, the bureau said in an announcement on Monday last week.
On Thursday and Friday next week, tests are to take place from 6am to 5pm and the sea areas are to be closed from midnight to early morning on both days, it said.
For the artillery tests, the bureau marked a danger zone of a minimum radius of 5 nautical miles (9.3km) and said that the maximum projectile altitude would be 7.62km.
For the uncrewed surveillance and reconnaissance aerial vehicles, the marked danger zone has a minimum radius of 12 nautical miles, possibly for conducting high-altitude reconnaissance operations.
The institute previously conducted missile tests in August and November last year.
While it was reported that Hsiung Feng II-E (雄風, “Brave Wind”) missiles were fired in August last year, the military has provided no further information regarding the tests, as well as next month’s tests.
Possible candidates include surface-to-air Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) missiles, Wan Chien (萬劍, “Thousand Sword”) cluster-munition missiles and Yu Cha (魚叉, “Harpoon”) anti-ship missiles.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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