The Navy and the Marines will hold an amphibious exercise in Ilan County in the next two weeks, but the vessels taking part in the exercise will not sail through the Taiwan Strait to avoid provoking China, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
“The main purpose of this exercise is to make sure our Marines are able to reinforce fellow soldiers from the sea when land troops are in serious trouble,” said Chen Chien-hua (陳健華), deputy director of the ministry’s Joint Warfare Development Department.
“We’ll keep things low profile to avoid unnecessary tensions in the strait. To this end, our vessels from Tsoying Naval Base will travel to Ilan via the Pacific Ocean route,” he said.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Vessels destined for Ilan usually sail through the Taiwan Strait, as it is a shorter route.
Chen made his remarks during a press conference at the ministry yesterday morning. He said the exercise would simulate a situation in which the enemy had seriously depleted either northern or southern military units, thus requiring the Marines to quickly relocate from Tsoying and land in the war zone by sea.
In a war scenario, Marine commanders would decide on how best to transport the troops to the drop zone.
In addition to the Navy and the Marines, Chen said that Air Force aircraft would also participate in the exercise, providing air support for the Marines and naval vessels.
“We carry out such amphibious exercises twice a year. This will be the first one this year,” Chen said.
For this year’s second exercise, Chen said the ministry was considering whether to merge it with the Han Kuang military exercise.
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