The military is to hold a large scale live-fire drill on April 20 in Pingtung as part of the annual Hankuang No. 17 exercise, the Ministry of National Defense announced yesterday.
The drill is to take place in Pingtung County's coastal Chechen (車程) township and will involve the simulation of countermeasures against amphibious landing attempts by Chinese troops, the ministry said.
The drill will involve a coordinated effort by the army, navy and air force, though the army is to play the largest role.
"The live-fire drill is aimed at simulating a counter-amphibious landing campaign in a coastal area in southern Taiwan. It is to be launched to test the coordination between the three services," said Colonel Chang Ting-ping (
"Various kinds of weapons in use with the three services will be test-fired in the drill. They include cannons, tanks and army attack helicopters. The air force will send F-5E fighter planes to provide fire support from the air, while the navy will dispatch missile boats to join in the operation," Chang said.
Chang made the remarks yesterday at a regular press conference of the ministry.
The Hankuang No. 17, the largest military exercise of the year, kicked off in the middle of last month with a computer war-game simulation of different Chinese attack scenarios.
Chang also confirmed that a domestically developed multiple rocket launcher is to be tested for the first time in public as a part of the drill.
The weapon system is the Thunder 2000 multiple rocket launcher, developed by the military's Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology several years ago. "The Thunder 2000 is to be test-fired in the drill. Following the test, the weapon system is to become operational in the army," Chang said.
Chang's comments indicate that the army has decided to buy the Thunder 2000, rather than a similar system produced by a US arms manufacturer. The Thunder 2000 had initially been rejected by the army because it was considered to be inferior to its US equivalent both in terms of power and accuracy.
"The main objective of the live-fire test to be held on April 20 is to test how the three services can coordinate their weapon systems to prevent an amphibious-landing by the enemy," Colonel Chang said. "In the drill, the air force and navy will launch the first wave of attacks on enemy ships with missiles and bombs. They are expected to annihilate the enemy before they can reach the coast," Chang said.
"If the first wave of attacks cannot destroy all of the enemy ships, we will seek to use all of the army's weapons deployed along the coast to wipe out the remaining enemy troops that attempt to land," he said.
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