The annual Han Kuang military exercises this year would be unscripted and not feature live-fire drills on Taiwan proper in a departure from previous iterations, Chief of the General Staff Admiral Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹) told lawmakers yesterday.
Mei made the remarks in a question-and-answer session on the exercises at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei, the first time a chief of the general staff had reported to lawmakers in nearly 25 years.
This year’s Han Kuang exercises are scheduled for July 22 to 26.
Photo: CNA
The design of this year’s military drills has undergone extensive changes focusing on familiarizing maneuver brigades with their operational environment and roles in war plans to address the rising threat from China, he said.
The exercises would emphasize realism and practicing decentralized command and control, and would not have scripts and rehearsals or the participation of marines and army special forces role-playing as opposition forces, he said.
That means the annual Lien Hsin marine corps amphibious assault drills and annual army special forces parachute drills would be held separately from Han Kuang exercises in another change from past practice, Mei said.
The former would be conducted early next month, while the latter would be held sometime after the Han Kuang exercises, he said.
Marines and special forces would instead focus on their assigned missions, operational environment, and command and control arrangements, he added.
When asked to clarify the partial omission of live-fire drills, Mei said troops based in the nation’s outlying islands would practice with live ammunition as before.
Military units based in Taiwan proper would conduct live-fire exercises separately, he said, adding that this year’s guided precision munition drills have increased in rigor.
Giving commanders freedom of action, clear areas of responsibility and rules of engagement, and ensuring units are capable of operating without being given orders are part of the distributed command and control capabilities that this year’s exercises would put to the test, he said.
Echoing Mei’s comments, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told legislators that the canceled part of the live-fire drills was performative and that units have been allotted more live-ammo practice than in previous years.
Separately, Mei told reporters on the sidelines of the legislative meeting that he does not consider attending the committee meeting in person to be demeaning to the chief of the general staff’s office.
Should his appearance at the meeting instill a greater understanding for and appreciation of the armed forces in the public and media, going to the legislature would be worthwhile, he said.
Koo at the same impromptu news conference said that the admiral attended the session out of respect for lawmakers and that Ministry of National Defense officials believe the nation’s top commander in principle should answer their summons.
However, legislators should limit their questions to the annual military drills and not expect to summon the chief of the general staff as a matter of course, Koo said.
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