The army will hold the first computerized war games today between two combined arms brigades since the institution of the brigades was completed last year, according to defense sources.
Combined arms brigades, which have been activated gradually over the past few years, have now taken over the role of traditional divisions in the army.
The battle simulation system that will be used was developed by the army solely for the purpose of testing combined arms brigades.
The war games will be held at the Armored Vehicles Training School in Taoyuan, where a building designed specially for computer war gaming has been built.
The game will pit the Tamsui-based 178th brigade against the Hsinchu-based 106th brigade.
There are five categories of combined arms brigades. The 178th brigade is the same type of brigade that protects Taipei City, and is one of the strongest brigades of its type.
The 106th is weaker in terms of equipment and personnel. Both brigades fall into the category of "defensive brigades."
According to military custom, the stronger unit always plays the blue army and the weaker the red army in computer war games and real-life field exercises.
The realism of the game has been questioned but the army hopes that it will provide important data about the relative strength of a combined arms brigade compared with its equivalent in the Chinese army.
Chang Li-teh (張立德), a senior editor at Defense Technology Monthly magazine, said detailed information about the game would be hard to come by but the army's choice of brigades to field in the game was indicative of the sophistication of the system.
"After several years' effort, the army has now upgraded the system to operate on the brigade level," Chang said. "But not much information is available about how the system operates. The army regards it as one of its top secrets.
"But judging from the two brigades to be involved in this first- ever test-run of the system, the system does not seem to be sophisticated enough. This is because the two brigades, the 178th and 106th, are defensive brigades and are relatively weak compared with offensive brigades such as armored and motorized brigades.
"It seems that the system can not be applied to offensive brigades, which are much more complicated in terms of equipment and structure."
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