Troops stationed on Penghu Islands early yesterday held an anti-landing drill featuring US-made Stinger and Javelin missile defense systems as part of the ongoing Han Kuang exercises.
Army Penghu Defense Command troops fired from the Dual Mount Stinger, a tripod-mounted launch platform for the Stinger missile, and used Javelin portable anti-tank missiles during the drill held on the beachfront.
Soldiers also fired a 155m cannon, 105mm guns and 120mm mortars during the hour-long drill. This served as covering fire to protect troops as M60A3 tanks and CM-21 armored vehicles advanced on the battlefield.
Photo: AP / Military News Agency
The drill was also supposed to include air force jets and naval vessels, but they were canceled due to an approaching typhoon.
Similar live-fire exercises were also held on the Matsu Islands.
Meanwhile, live-fire exercises were canceled in Kinmen, less than 10km from mainland China, as more than 30 merchant vessels were heading to Liaoluo Port (料羅港) so they could anchor and shelter from the typhoon.
Photo: AP / Ministry of National Defense
Major General Cheng Chieh-yuan (鄭傑元), a spokesman for the Kinmen Defense Command, said the exercises were called off due to the vessels being in the target area.
Yesterday was the third day of the five-day around-the-clock live-fire component of the 40th Han Kuang series of exercises that began on Monday.
Due to the approaching Typhoon Gaemi, which was forecast to bring heavy rain and strong winds to almost all of Taiwan yesterday and today, the Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that all exercises scheduled for the remaining days would be canceled to focus on typhoon disaster preparation.
Photo: AP / Military News Agency / Ministry of National Defense
Instead of holding ground drills, troops would hold tabletop war games, the ministry said.
The annual Han Kuang exercises, which have served as Taiwan’s major war games since 1984, consist of live-fire drills and computerized war games, and seek to test Taiwan’s combat readiness in the face of a possible Chinese invasion.
This year’s tabletop exercises were staged in April.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS