The Republic of China Air Force yesterday used a closed-off motorway as a runway in a rare drill simulating a surprise attack from China that had wiped out its major airbases.
In all, six fighter aircraft landed and took off from Freeway No. 1 in an emergency landing and takeoff exercise, under the watchful eye of hundreds of spectators.
The one-hour drill anticipated a scenario in which runways at airbases in Greater Kaohsiung’s Gangshan Township (岡山), Penghu’s Magong (馬公), Pingtung and Greater Tainan were destroyed by three waves of missile attacks by China, forcing the air force to use alternative locations for landing and takeoff, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
“In today’s scenario, we assumed most of Taiwan’s military air bases were severely damaged in an attack by missiles from the People’s Liberation Army, and fighter jets could not return to their home bases,” an air force spokesman told reporters.
“Because of that we needed to convert some sections of the freeway to serve as emergency runways ... and for that purpose, we need to check the standard procedures, like clearing up the road surface, setting up communications networks and installing plane arrest cables,” he said.
In the exercise, which began at 7:26am in heavy fog, two Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF), two F-16A/Bs and two Mirage 2000s landed on a 2.7km stretch of Freeway No. 1 in the Madou area of Greater Tainan. More than 1,300 members of the armed services participated in the exercise.
Photo: AFP
The IDF fighters took off from Tainan Air Base, while the F-16s and Mirage 2000s took off from Chiashan Base (佳山) in Hualien County.
To ensure the planes could land safely, a large number of soldiers were ordered to carry out a meticulous search for stones or other small objects on the road.
Several cars also drove along the motorway, releasing high-frequency sounds to scare away birds that might be sucked into the turbines of the jets.
As the six combat aircraft landed on the freeway, an army OH-58D scout helicopter carried out surveillance and an AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter provided protection for a CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter carrying bombs and missiles for the fighter aircraft.
Security checks, refilling and missile reloading on the six aircraft were accomplished within one hour. Each IDF aircraft was loaded with six Mk 82 bombs, while each F-16 was fitted with AGM-65 Maverick and AGM-84 Harpoon missiles and the Mirage 2000s were loaded with MICA missiles.
At 8:26am, the six combat aircraft took off at intervals of one minute.
The Madou section of the freeway was closed from 4am until 10am yesterday.
The drill was part of the five-day Han Kuang 27, an annual series of exercises that began on Monday and end on Friday.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
‘BOOMING’: ’ The number of partners we have here is incredible. You can see from their stock prices. They’re doing so well, they’re so happy,’ Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp’s spending in Taiwan has ballooned to about US$150 billion a year, 10 times the US$10 billion to US$15 billion the company spent five years ago, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, suggesting Taiwan’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes. This is where the systems are made. This is where AI supercomputers were created,” Huang said at a meeting for the company’s employees in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei, the planned site of Nvidia’s Taipei headquarters. “Taiwan
RSS