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Live-fire military drill to begin next month in Penghu

ROC Central News Agency

2013/03/26 18:00:49

Taipei, March 26 (CNA) The annual series of military exercise, coded Han Kuang No. 29 this year, will begin in the Penghu Islands off southwestern Taiwan next month and will include live fire, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Tuesday.

The series of drills will take place April 15-19 based on a simulated scenario in which Taiwan has to defend itself against military strikes by China, according to Tseng Fu-hsin, assistant deputy chief of the General Staff for Operation and Planning.

The two sides have been historic rivals since the end of a civil war on the mainland in 1949 but relations between them have been warming up since 2008, when President Ma Ying-jeou came to office in Taiwan.

The war games will be conducted around the clock for five consecutive days with "real soldiers and live ammunition," Tseng said.

The indigenous Thunderbolt-2000 multiple rocket launcher will be debuted during the exercises, he added.

The Han Kuang military exercises are Taiwan's most important war games involving the Army, the Air Force and the Navy. They are aimed at strengthening the country's combat readiness in the face of a rising military threat of China.

This year, the comprehensive military exercises will also include computer-aided war games, which are slated for July.

According to Tseng, the live fire drill will take place on April 17 in Penghu's Wude area, as well as in the air space over and marine area off southern Penghu. Those places have been designated as the sites of the homeland defense combat action, Tseng said.

He also said there will be no live-fire target practice during the drills, but Navy and Air Force weapons and new models of firearms will be tested.

In the counterstrike scenarios, Penghu beaches are very suitable for testing Taiwan's self-made Thunderbolt multiple rocket launching system, Tseng said.

Fu Yung-ming, a deputy chief of staff at the Army Command Headquarters, said that during the military exercises, nine Thunderbolt rocket launchers will be deployed.

However, Standard-2 and Hsiung-Feng III missiles will not be used in the 2013 Han Kuang drills, according to the MND.

It has not been confirmed whether President Ma Ying-jeou will show up during the live-fire drills in Penghu.

(By Rogge Chen and Elizabeth Hsu)