The army on Monday launched a five-day field exercise that is pitting two motorized brigades against each other over a vast area stretching from Tainan to Miaoli, the army general headquarters said yesterday.
The exercise, code-named Changtai No. 14, is part of the Hankuang No. 18 exercise, which is coming to an end after a duration of over one month. It is the army's largest, brigade-level drill in a year.
It is the first time that the army is making its large, yearly brigade-level field exercise part of the Hankuang series of exercises, which are held annually to test the three services' individual and joint-operations capabilities.
The Changtai No. 14 involves two motorized brigades -- the Tainan-based 298th brigade and the Chiayi-based 200th brigade. It kicked off on Monday and will last until Friday.
The two brigades have to move from their respective bases in Tainan and Chiayi over a distance of more than 200km to a designated area in Miaoli county, where they will maneuver against each other in war simulations.
Before reaching the final coordinates, the two brigades will also engage in a series of minor skirmishes with each other.
These skirmishes will include scenarios created and managed with the help of computers.
The computer-assisted drills are a substitute for the actual deployment of troops against one another.
It simulates the troop movements on a computer network that links the command posts of the two opposing brigades.
As the two brigades arrive at the final coordinates, they will switch to "real," or physical maneuvers. The brigades are supposed to be among the best in their category.
A spokesman for the army general headquarters said the Changtai No. 14 exercise will, on one hand, test the effectiveness of a computerized war-games program for brigade-level exercises and, on the other hand, it will test the long-distance capabilities of the two brigades.
"The brigade-level computerized war-gaming program was only finished earlier this year. It had only been put to the test for quite a limited time before the Changtai No. 14 exercise began. We want to know how well it can work in an actual exercise," the army official said.
"With the exercise we also want to find out whether the two motorized brigades can get to the designated coordinates in time -- without any delays caused by mechanical problems," the official said.
"A motorized brigade is designed to have great mobility. It is equipped with a large number of transport vehicles and every 12 soldiers, or squad, is issued with a Humvee," he said.
The army bought over 4,000 Humvees -- which had shown itself to be a success during combat experience in the Gulf War in 1991 -- from the US over the past decade.
If properly maintained, the 4,000-plus Humvees should satisfy the needs of the army for the transportation of troops.
But the operation-readiness ratio of the Humvees are rumored to have dropped considerably in recent years because of improper usage and maintenance.
The army general headquarters refused to comment on the issue. There are no official statistics available to prove the rumor about the Humvees being in poor condition.
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