The military is practicing immediate response drills, as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would no longer require as much preparation time as previously planned for an invasion, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today.
His comments came prior to him presenting the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) to the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, and as the armed forces entered the third day of their first-ever “immediate combat readiness drills.”
Regarding whether this year’s upcoming Han Kuang exercise is based on a possible invasion of Taiwan by the PLA in 2027, Koo said that the drills always include high-level war games, computer-assisted command post drills and live-fire exercises.
Photo: Taipei Times
The annual exercises have historically been planned with a one-to-two-year lead time to integrate new weapons, verify joint capabilities and achieve high combat readiness, Koo said.
However, intelligence gathered by Taiwan’s own reconnaissance efforts as well as shared by allies shows that the PLA requires less preparation time to transition from drills to actual combat, Koo said.
Therefore, once key PLA warning indicators are detected, Taiwan must assume the worst-case scenario and take immediate countermeasures, he said.
That planning led to the Ministry of National Defense establishing the new “immediate combat readiness drills” in response to “gray zone” threats, he added.
Regarding increasing the defense budget to 3 percent of GDP, Koo said that strengthening self-defense is important and that the ministry would communicate with opposition parties and the public to gain support.
Improving national defense, along with regional partners, can create collective deterrence and avoid war, Koo said.
Asked whether the ministry would extend mandatory military service from one to two years, Koo said “there is no such plan.”
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