The US military will not observe Taiwan’s annual war games for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of National Defense said on Wednesday.
Major General Liu Yu-ping (劉豫屏) of the ministry’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Staff for Training, said the ministry did not invite a US military delegation to Taiwan to conduct an “After Action Review” of this year’s Han Kuang exercises due to the pandemic.
However, Liu said that the absence of the US delegation would not affect long-term bilateral cooperation between the two countries in terms of military exchanges.
Instead, the ministry would invite officials from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to observe this year’s Han Kuang exercises, the ministry said.
The annual Han Kuang drills, first held in 1984, are the nation’s largest military exercises involving all branches of the armed forces.
The US military has sent a delegation to observe the annual drill, which aims to test local armed forces’ combat readiness in the event of a Chinese invasion, every year since 2003.
Last year was the first time no US military delegation attended the annual war games. Officials from AIT observed the exercises in their place.
This year’s Han Kuang exercises would again be held in two stages; computer-assisted war games and live-fire drills, scheduled for this month and July respectively, said Major General Lin Wen-huang (林文皇) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Staff for Operations and Planning.
The computer war games phase are to be conducted 24/7 from April 23 to April 30 using the Joint Theater Level Simulation system. The live-fire drills are to be staged from July 12 to July 16, he said.
The exercises would also test the ability of the armed forces to mobilize reserve forces, with an estimated 8,000 reservists set to be called up, the ministry said.
Another major focus on the live-fire drill section would be the staging of a series of emergency landing and takeoff drills for fighter jets in Pingtung County.
It is to be conducted on the Jiadong section of Provincial Highway No. 1 in Pingtung County for the first time. This is one of five sections built to accommodate emergency military jet landings and takeoffs in the event of a war, Lin said.
It would simulate a scenario in which Taiwan’s military and civilian airports and airstrips are seriously damaged by enemy fire, and jets have to land on the highway.
The other emergency landing strips are on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) — on the Madou (麻豆) and Rende (仁德) sections in Tainan, the Huatan (花壇) section in Changhua County and Minsyong (民雄) section in Chiayi County.
Exercises have previously been conducted on these four sections, whereas drills planned for the Jiadong section in 2011 were canceled due to poor weather conditions.
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