(Reuters)
TAICHUNG, Taiwan, June 9 – Taiwan’s military simulated destroying an invading Chinese force in a coastal exercise on Tuesday, firing off rockets and artillery to stop an amphibious assault in what it described as a more realistic combat scenario with less preparation time.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under Beijing’s control, and its warplanes and warships operate almost daily around the island.
The beaches and mud flats on Taiwan’s west coast, directly facing China across the Taiwan Strait, are seen as the most likely location for an attempted landing by the Chinese military in the event of any invasion.
The drill was conducted simultaneously from eight positions across a 20 km (12 miles) stretch of coast around Taichung in central Taiwan.
Taiwan’s government is modernising its armed forces, adding new and more mobile weapons but also making its training less predictable and more like the situation troops would face in actual combat.
Artillery commander Ong Yih-ming told reporters the drills were no longer about set-piece manoeuvres.
“What is different about this training compared with the past is that we are no longer conducting heavy artillery firing in a fixed, routine formation as before,” he said.
“The timing for entering positions this time was based on realistic combat conditions. So I believe this training posed a considerable level of difficulty for our troops.”
The drill used domestically developed, truck-mounted Thunderbolt-2000 rocket systems, U.S.-made Paladin howitzers, anti-tank missiles, artillery and mortars to establish a “kill zone” to stop an amphibious assault.
