Taiwan’s military yesterday concluded two days of drills at sea and in the air to practice defending against a surprise attack by China.
Almost every day, Chinese warships sail around Taiwan and warplanes fly toward the nation before turning back.
Journalists observed the training from boats that escorted a mine-laying ship.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
“Any unilateral irrational action could very easily escalate tensions and sabotage stability in the Taiwan Strait region,” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Sun Li-fang (孫立方) told reporters at Tsuoying Naval Base in Kaohsiung.
The ministry said in a daily report that seven Chinese warplanes and four naval vessels were detected around Taiwan in the 24-hour period ending at 6am yesterday.
It also reported a Chinese balloon off the northern coast.
The drills, which started on Tuesday, come less than three weeks after the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), was elected president, giving a third straight four-year term to the party, which is opposed by China.
The drills are aimed in part at boosting public confidence in the nation’s ability to defend itself.
While its military is dwarfed by China’s, Taiwan has been buying high-tech weaponry from the US, revitalized its domestic arms industry and extended the length of mandatory military service from four months to one year.
Separately, the military is mulling the adoption of an indigenous 105mm gun-bearing wheeled fighting vehicle after a proof-of-concept program reported successes, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Army officers and technical staff involved in the vehicle development project are lobbying the Army Command to authorize mass production of the armored fighting vehicle, as its prototype is poised to achieve operational capability, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The Armaments Bureau developed the 105mm main gun and a dedicated turret in collaboration with the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, and the army’s Armor Training Command and Armor School, the source said.
The aim of the project was to test the bureau’s ability to develop “a low-recoil main gun for fighting vehicles and a fire-control system,” the source said, adding that the institute was tasked with research and development.
In an inspection conducted last year by then-deputy minister of national defense Wang Shin-lung (王信龍), the prototype demonstrated fire-on-the-move capability against moving targets with no missed shots, the source said.
That level of performance was a match for, if not superior to, armored fighting vehicles fielded by the army, they said.
After the demonstration, the project gained the Armor Training Command’s unreserved support, they added.
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