The military yesterday conducted its first live-firing of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) purchased from the US, as the nation upgrades its capabilities to repel a potential Chinese attack.
The US is Taiwan’s most important arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties.
Taiwan has faced increased military pressure from China, including several rounds of war games, as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims over the nation.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Taiwan has bought 29 of Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS, with the first batch of 11 received last year and the rest set to arrive by next year.
The truck-mounted units can launch multiple precision-guided rockets and have been used by Ukraine against Russia in their ongoing conflict.
With a range of about 300km, they could hit coastal targets in China’s Fujian Province, on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, in the event of a conflict.
Reporters watched yesterday as the army launched rockets from the HIMARS at Jiupeng base in Pingtung County.
Colonel Ho Chih-chung (何至中) told reporters that US technical personnel were present during the live-fire drill and helped to resolve a “signal error” during the first round when three launchers failed to fire simultaneously.
“We believe this exercise provides an opportunity to enhance our troubleshooting capabilities, allowing us to better demonstrate realistic combat readiness in the event of war,” Ho said.
Chinese-language Asia-Pacific Defense magazine editor-in-chief Cheng Chi-wen (鄭繼文), a military expert who attended the drill, said that HIMARS has gained international prestige during the Russia-Ukraine war.
Its overall performance is better than the locally made Thunderbolt-2000 multiple launch rocket system, as the GPS-aided navigation system provides HIMARS with powerful and precise attack capabilities, he said.
Given the HIMARS’ superior performance, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology would be advised to unify its ammunition with that of the Thunderbolt-2000, Cheng said.
It would help the army map out a stronger asymmetric warfare strategy, if HIMARS’ GPS-aided navigation technology can be applied to locally made weapons’ fire control systems to facilitate information sharing between both systems, he said.
Yesterday’s test came a day after Taiwan said it had detected another “joint combat readiness patrol” by China’s military near Taiwan involving warplanes and warships.
Additional reporting by Chen Chih-cheng
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