A live-fire combined arms drill is to be held at the beginning of next month, with the primary focus of improving the army’s coordinated combat between land and air forces, a military officer said.
The live-fire artillery exercise would be aimed at seaborne targets, with helicopters also shooting at targets with precision weaponry, the officer said.
While both branches usually hold separate drills, AH-1W helicopters joined the live-fire artillery drill conducted by the 10th Army Corps in September last year to ascertain the actual effects of both branches’ weapon systems, the officer said.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Whereas last year the helicopters were limited to deploying heat flares as interference, this year they would be firing live munitions against seaborne targets, the officer added.
The army would deploy its heavy artillery and helicopters if enemy forces were to breach Taiwan’s naval perimeter and were closing in on the nation’s shores, the officer said.
This scenario, and the fact that most modern combat utilizes combined arms, makes it necessary to conduct joint exercises to ensure that airborne and ground weaponry are able to work together, instead of against each other, the officer said.
The drill, codenamed Golden Eagle, is scheduled to be held at Hsinchu County’s Kengzihkou (坑子口) on July 4, and would be delayed until July 6 should the weather prove disruptive, the officer said.
While AH-1W helicopters would again be used this year, the army plans to use AH-64E Apache helicopters in the next similar drill, the officer added.
In other news, as of 2010, the army’s AH-1W helicopters have not been conducting live-fire drills with tube-launched optically tracked wire-guided (TOW) missiles due to safety concerns, the National Audit Office said yesterday.
The wires guiding the TOW missiles to their targets risk becoming entangled in the AH-1W’s rear rotor blades, the office said.
However, the Aviation and Special Forces Command has continued to keep stock of the missiles, which is a waste of facilities, money and manpower, it said, adding that, in response to its request to improve equipment management, the Army Command Headquarters has decided to offer the missiles to ground forces for firing practice.
The headquarters declined to comment on how many of the missiles are in its inventory.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS