The Coast Guard Administration is to hold two live-fire exercises to test an indigenous anti-armor rocket on the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea next month.
The exercises are scheduled from 8am to 9am on Sept. 5 and 12, the agency said in a notice to operators of aircraft and ships in the area.
The exercises would affect an area of 8 nautical miles (14.8km) around the launch site and the rockets would reach heights of up to 3.7km, it said.
Photo: Lo Tien-pin, Taipei Times
The notice did not specify what kind of weapons would be tested, saying only that the exercises are part of annual drills.
However, the Central News Agency reported that locally developed Kestrel anti-armor rockets would be launched on both dates.
The rocket, developed by the military’s top research unit, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, is an individual shoulder-launched weapon for anti-armor and concrete penetration.
With an effective range of 400m, the launcher is made from fiber-reinforced plastic and features an optical sight and a mounting for a night vision scope.
The military previously said that it would soon deploy 292 Kestrel rockets at two Taiwan-controlled sites in the South China Sea in reaction to increasing Chinese presence in the region.
The Pratas Islands, which are almost 450km southwest of Kaohsiung, are one of two territories controlled by Taiwan in the South China Sea. The other is Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), which is about 1,500km southwest of Kaohsiung. Marine Corps-trained coast guard personnel are stationed on both territories.
However, the Ministry of National Defense last year said that it would temporarily post military personnel on the Pratas Islands in reaction to reports that the Chinese military was planning to conduct drills in the area.
The ministry did not elaborate on the number of troops it would deploy, their planned arrival date or how long they would stay.
Taiwan, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim part of the South China Sea as their territory.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about 1,900 as
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS