The military has extended the computer-assisted portion of this year’s annual war games to allow for more thorough analysis of its results, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said yesterday.
Chiu made the remarks in response to questions from reporters about the extension of the computer portion of the Han Kuang exercises from five to eight days this year.
The exercises from Friday to Friday next week would be the longest since the annual games were first held in 1984.
Chiu said that the military has previously held five-day and seven-day versions of the Han Kuang exercises.
The Ministry of National Defense decided to extend this year’s war games to eight days after a review of previous exercises found that they had been conducted too hastily, leaving little time for units involved in the drills to review their actions, he said.
The decision was made before Chiu assumed office in February, he added.
The Han Kuang exercises are the nation’s largest military drills involving all branches of the armed forces.
They are held annually in two stages, a computer-assisted portion and live-fire drills.
This year’s computer war games phase is to be conducted 24 hours per day throughout the eight days, using the Joint Theater Level Simulation system.
The live-fire drills are to be held from July 12 to July 16, the ministry said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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