The military yesterday held exercises in Pingtung County that involved firing Stinger missiles and testing troops’ asymmetrical warfare capabilities.
The Mighty Bow exercises were open to the media and involved soldiers from 11 units, including the 21st Artillery Command, the Kinmen and Penghu defense commands and the Marine Corps Air Defense Garrison Group.
Lieutenant Colonel Chen Yu-wen (陳郁文), chief military instructor of the army’s Artillery Training Command, said that the soldiers taking part in the drill had never fired Stinger missiles and were getting accustomed to the weapon system’s operations.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
That was why some of the missiles missed their targets, Chen said.
Soldiers fired the missiles from an Avenger air-defense system at target drones from a military zone in Manjhou Township’s (滿州) Jiupeng (九棚) area, he said.
The missiles were mounted on wheeled vehicles and had sighting devices to help spot the targets, he said.
Military personnel were required to acquire, identify, track and engage targets within seven to 12 seconds, Chen said.
The US-made Avenger is a fully automated, short-range air-defense system and is the army’s main shoot-on-the-move air defense weapon, the Ministry of National Defense said.
It is a lightweight, highly mobile, easily transportable surface-to-air system containing eight Stinger missiles in two pods, the ministry said.
In addition to the standard vehicle-mounted Stingers, the military has also bought FIM-92 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles from the US, with the first batch delivered in May.
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