The military is to test its newly established joint operations mechanism in the Hankuang No. 19 exercise scheduled to begin in the middle of next month, Deputy Defense Minister for armament General Chen Chao-ming (
"We want to find out through the exercise whether the joint-operations mechanism could work as designed. The test will be the first part of the Hankuang No. 19 exercise," Chen said.
Chen made the remarks yesterday at a meeting of the legislature's National Defense Committee in response to inquiries from a KMT lawmaker over how the exercise will be conducted.
The drill will be the largest joint exercise of the year. It will be the 19th of the annual Hankuang-series exercises launched in the early 1980s.
"If the joint-operations mechanism proves to be OK in the test, a computer-supported war game will follow as the second part of the exercise," he said.
"Troop maneuvers for competition will be the third and final part of the exercise," he said.
"We will test the mechanism at the command posts of various levels. We want to see if it works as designed," Chen said.
However, he did not go into detail of how the mechanism will be conducted.
The joint-operations mechanism was established according to two defense-related laws enacted last year -- the National Defense Law (
The design of the mechanism is based on the new military command structure which was put into place after the two laws took effect last year.
The new command structure places the defense minister above the chief of the general staff, reversing a decades-old tradition of a weak defense minister and a strong chief of the general staff.
The military has long been short on coordination and integration between the three services, either for technical reasons or for lack of inter-service cooperation.
The Hankuang No. 18 exercise last year provided the first chance for the mechanism, which was then starting to take shape, to be examined for its original design.
During the drill, the chief of the general staff, Admiral Li Chieh (
This year's exercise will differ from last year's in that it will provide a full-scale test of the joint-operations mechanism.
The Hankuang No. 19 will also have three parts.
In addition to the computer-supported war gaming and the troop maneuvers based on problems found through the war gaming that have traditionally been a part of the drill, the test of the joint operations mechanism will be the third component.
The Hankuang No. 19 exercise is scheduled to begin April 18. A second, follow-up exercise will be held later in the year.
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