The Urban Resilience Exercises are to begin this month in coordination with the Han Kuang military drills, focusing on protecting critical infrastructure and civil-military integration, Minister Without Portfolio Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) said yesterday.
New Taipei City, Kaohsiung, Yilan City and Pingtung County would hold six days of drills in three phases, with one-quarter of critical infrastructure in the regions set to participate, Chi said.
The exercises are to include tabletop simulations of power and communications outages, as well as cybersecurity breaches, alongside large-scale field operations focused on evacuations, sheltering, distribution of essential supplies and medical evacuations, he said.
Photo: Screen grab from Open House Taipei’s Facebook page
The drills, which are to run through August in parallel with the computer-assisted phase of the Han Kuang exercises, aim to bolster the nation’s ability to maintain essential services and support military operations during a conflict, he said.
The Ministry of National Defense last week announced that the 42nd Han Kuang exercises would begin with tabletop war games to be held from Saturday to April 24 and live-fire drills planned for August.
Of the nation’s 22 administrative regions, 11 of them are to conduct urban resilience drills this year, while the remaining would hold disaster-prevention exercises in the second half of the year, rotating every two years, Chi said.
This year’s participating regions include New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Yilan City and Kaohsiung, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung counties, he said.
New Taipei City, Yilan City, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County would coordinate with the Central Joint Emergency Operations Center during the tabletop war games of the Han Kuang exercises, over three phases on Monday and Tuesday next week, Thursday and Friday next week, and April 20 and 21, he said.
When the Han Kuang live-fire drills take place in August, cross-regional coordination exercises are to be held for the first time, integrating efforts among central and local governments and the armed forces, he said.
The remaining seven regions, including Taoyuan, are to conduct two-day drills between this month and August, he added.
The Urban Resilience Exercises have been expanded from one day last year to two days this year, with the first day dedicated to tabletop simulations and the second to field operations, he said.
The drills would focus on civil-military integration and be conducted without scripted scenarios, he said, adding that requiring one-quarter of critical infrastructure to participate each year would ensure full participation over a four-year cycle.
In response to evolving forms of conflict, this year’s drills would, for the first time, incorporate uncrewed aerial vehicle operations for transporting supplies in Chiayi and Pingtung counties, with the aim of enhancing integrated civilian-military response capabilities, he said.
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