The Ministry of National Defense announced that the computer simulations that form part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises began yesterday.
The purpose of the simulations is mainly to test the military's ground combat abilities.
"This year's Han Kuang computer exercise will simulate a cross-strait war breaking out in 2008, with the Chinese military successfully landing [troops] in Taiwan after launching full-scale missile and air attacks on the country, and an intense ground battle breaking out," ministry spokesman Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang (
The simulation envisions the military mobilizing more than 3 million active and reserve service members to confront Chinese ground troops, a ministry press statement said, adding that a simulated battle for Taipei City would be fought.
Till the bitter end
This year's computer exercise would continue until the Taiwanese military had lost all of its fighting capabilities, the statement added.
The ministry said that through the exercise it would learn how long the military would be able to resist a Chinese assault, and how many military personnel, including reserves, the country required.
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday quoted an unnamed official as saying that the ministry estimated that the military would be able to hold out against a Chinese invasion force for more than two weeks, or even a whole month, provided the military and the public maintained the will to fight.
But if Taiwanese lack that determination, the country could be in China's hands in three days, the paper quoted the official as saying.
The ministry said the computer simulation would run through Saturday, while members of the legislature's National Defense Committee were scheduled to observe the computer war gamestomorrow.
The former commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Dennis Blair, has arrived in Taipei to watch the Han Kuang war games, according to recent reports in the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times sister newspaper.
Blair, who is also reported to have led US delegations to watch ministry computer exercises over the past two years, would enter the Hengshan Command Compound in Taipei's Dazhi District with the US delegation to observe the exercises.
Last year's computer exercises focused on simulating a Chinese missile and air attack on Taiwan, as well as a naval invasion and air campaign in the Taiwan Strait. The ministry said that the result of the simulation indicated that the Chinese invasion force would need more than two weeks to reach Taiwan's shores.
Meanwhile, the Liberty Times reported in yesterday's edition that the military had begun to station mechanized infantry units at major air force facilities.
Strengthened
The ministry said that the results of last year's computer simulations indicated that the security forces at those bases would be too weak to successfully fend off an assault by Chinese airborne troops. Therefore, the ministry decided to boost the defenses of these important facilities. Around 700 mechanized infantry soldiers would be deployed at different airfields and other locations across the nation by the end of next month, the report said.
Stationing mechanized infantry soldiers at these important locations would also prevent the enemy from infiltrating the bases before an attack began, the ministry added.
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