The “tabletop” portion of this year’s Han Kuang military exercises began on Friday to test Taiwan’s defense strategies and tactics against a simulated attack by China.
The “tabletop drills” officially started at noon, with Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) and Chief of the General Staff Admiral Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光) overseeing the process at a command center, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The Han Kuang exercises are Taiwan’s largest annual war games and involve all branches of the armed forces. They are held annually in two stages: the tabletop drills and live-fire drills.
This year’s tabletop drills are to last for eight days, the longest in the history of the exercises since they began in 1984, military officials said.
Due to COVID-19 prevention protocols, only about 300 military personnel are participating in the drills at the command center, sources said.
In previous years, the number of military personnel taking part easily reached the thousands, the sources said.
The drills are to run around the clock for their entire duration, with a defending team using the Joint Theater Level Simulation system to test Taiwan’s ability to ward off an enemy attack under the harshest possible scenarios.
This involves putting the latest military assets of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the simulation, including its first indigenous aircraft carrier, the Shandong, J-20 stealth fighters and advanced missiles.
The Military News Agency reported that Chiu rallied officers to follow every procedure to hone their decisionmaking skills and battle management.
He asked participants to keep the contents and results of the drills confidential, the Military News Agency reported.
The live-fire component of the Han Kuang exercises is scheduled for July 12 to 16, the ministry said.
The annual exercises are being held this year as tensions rise across the Taiwan Strait.
Amid more frequent sales of US weapons to Taiwan, high-level US visits and stronger support for Taipei under former US president Donald Trump, which seems to be continuing under US President Joe Biden.
PLA sorties have entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone almost on a daily basis since the middle of September last year.
In the first 23 days of this month alone, PLA planes have flown such sorties on 18 days, with the largest show of force, involving 25 warplanes, on April 12, the ministry said.
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