The military has selected 12 locations, including airports and beaches, that would likely be used for anti-aircraft landing drills during the live-fire component of the annual Han Kuang exercises later this month, with a focus on testing troops’ multi-point simultaneous defensive capabilities in real combat scenarios, experts said on Sunday.
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), the port of Taipei, Guandu Plain A and B, Guanyin Beach, Jiben Beach, Beipu Beach, Penghu Beach, Siahusi, Tainan Airport and Jianan Beach would be used for the “annual military exercises and training involving the use of helicopters,” a recent live-fire notice issued by the Maritime and Port Bureau showed.
It is thought that these locations, selected mainly due to their proximity to critical infrastructure, would be used to hold anti-aircraft landing drills, military experts said.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Previously, the Ministry of National Defense announced that the airspace around Taoyuan airport and Songshan airport would be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23, respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises.
The military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at Taoyuan airport for the first time during last year’s Han Kuan exercises, said Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌) and Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), research fellows at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
They said that the drill locations were chosen because they are in the vicinity of ports, airports, beaches, political and economic centers and oil depots.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would aim to capture those locations in the event of an invasion, and the military exercises are designed to prevent the PLA from seizing them, they said.
For instance, the port of Taipei, which is close to Guandu Plain, has been an important defensive stronghold in many past exercises, because if the PLA were to capture the plain, they could advance toward the headquarters of the nation’s major political institutions, they said.
Drills are set to be held at Guanyin Beach and Jianan Beach because they are close to Taoyuan airport and Taichung Ching Chuang Kang Airport, respectively, they said.
Drills would also be conducted at Penghu Beach because if Penghu were occupied, it could serve as a military supply base for Chinese troops, they said.
Su said the PLA has about 1,000 helicopters, and its fleet is as large as the US military is, adding that if a helicopter took off from Penghu, which is about 24 nautical miles (44.45km) from Taiwan proper, it could reach Taiwan’s coast in about 10 minutes, whereas it would take about one hour to fly across the Taiwan Strait.
Therefore, in the event of an invasion, Taiwan’s key locations could be occupied and controlled by the PLA, which would enable a second group of PLA troops to unload heavy equipment for another wave of attacks, Su said.
This year’s exercises exhibit the nation’s overall defense strategy of regional defense, and anti-landing scenarios would not be concentrated in one place as in previous drills, but feature “multi-point simultaneous defense,” Su said.
The focus on the defense of the areas surrounding airports, ports and other key military infrastructure demonstrates the military’s awareness of the importance of regional defense, he added.
This year’s live-fire segment of the Han Kuang exercises, the largest annual training drills conducted by the nation’s military and held since 1984, is to take place from July 22 to July 26 and focus on unscripted and real combat drills, the ministry said.
The exercises would not feature live-fire drills on Taiwan proper. However, troops stationed on outlying islands would use live ammunition, it said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS