The annual Han Kuang military exercise might not involve live-fire drills this year, as the Ministry of National Defense (MND) is making an adjustment to the nation’s defense strategies, sources said.
With the MND to reorient the Han Kuang exercise, the ministry is to spend more time on redesigning the exercise and reviewing the first-stage computer simulation before organizing full-scale field exercises, thereby presumably putting back the date of the field exercises to next year, sources said.
The exercise traditionally consists of two stages — a computer simulation of an attack by China’s People’s Liberation Army, followed by nationwide field exercises to test the results of the simulation, with the two stages being held months apart.
Photo: EPA
Due to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) new defense policy, this year’s Han Kuang exercise — typically the nation’s largest military exercise — might involve only computer simulation, with full-scale field exercises postponed to next year, sources said.
Since her inauguration, Tsai has announced measures to overhaul the nation’s defense strategies, and the MND has been tasked with formulating a set of strategies to serve as the principle framework of the nation’s future military buildup plans over the next 10 years.
The plans are expected to be announced next month in the MND’s quadrennial defense review.
Photo: CNA
The new defense strategies would detail a shift from “effective deterrence” to “multiple deterrence,” the sources said.
If the Hang Kuang exercises do not involve live-fire drills, it would be the first time such drills have been postponed in response to a shift in defense policy.
According to an MND source, the ministry is to conduct a comprehensive test of the combat readiness of individual units of the armed forces — a new agenda of the simulation test — and to test overall defense capabilities during the first stage of this year’s Han Kuang exercise, while integrated field exercises will not be performed until much later.
The MND is to make this year’s Han Kuang exercise and future exercises more practical and comprehensive in accordance with the new defense paradigm, the source said.
Field exercises will still be held this year, as the MND has smaller-scale live-fire exercises scheduled throughout the year, and those exercises would be used to evaluate the simulation results and the armed forces’ combat capabilities, the sources said.
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