The armed forces are to hold field exercises on Monday and Tuesday in coastal regions dubbed “red beaches” to train defending Taiwan proper against a multipronged amphibious attack, a defense official familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Live-fire drills are to be conducted on beaches and near shores in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), at the Port of Taipei and in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), a notice posted on the bulletin of the Fisheries Administration said.
The official said the exercises would test the army’s ability to react quickly and utilize mobile reserves to defend simultaneous attacks by the Chinese military on multiple fronts.
Photo: CNA
In the war game, the Sixth Army Corps would play the defending force and the 151st Fleet would be the aggressor, the official added.
If Beijing were to invade Taiwan, the Chinese military would attack in multiple coastal areas, as few beaches in Taiwan proper are suitable landing sites for amphibious operations, they said.
The field exercises are scheduled to begin the same day as the computer-assisted simulation component of the annual Han Kuang drills, which would conclude on Friday next week, the official said,
Findings from past tabletop exercises and trends seen in the Russia-Ukraine war would be incorporated into the computer-assisted portion of the drills, which would be based on the Joint Theater Level Simulation technology platform, the official said.
The possible landing sites for the Chinese military are dubbed “red beaches” among military analysts, they said.
In 2017, Ian Easton, now senior director at the US-based Project 2049 Institute, identified 14 vulnerable beaches that could be used as landing sites, the official said.
The Taiwanese armed forces recognize that such vulnerabilities exist, but do not agree with Easton’s assessment of their locations and number, they said.
Separately, the Ministry of National Defense last week told lawmakers that the army plans to buy 2,060 light machine guns for combat units for NT$428.9 million (US$13.94 million) over five years.
The weapons would be allocated to enhance frontline units’ firepower and their capability to conduct counterattacks against Chinese amphibious and airborne, air assault, infiltration and sabotage operations, it said.
A public version of the ministry’s proposed budget revealed a flurry of plans to buy arms and equipment amid a planned expansion of the army and marine corps following the implementation of one-year military conscription and the expansion of the reserves.
The budget proposals include NT$521 million for grenade launchers, automatic grenade launchers and pistols; NT$108 million for 107 81mm mortars; NT$232.2 million for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear protective equipment; NT$1.759 billion for 10,000 night vision devices; and NT$22.8 million for 2,000 binoculars.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying