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Taiwan military sends over 4,000 warplane sorties on patrol this year

ROC Central News Agency

10/05/2020 06:25 PM

Taipei, Oct. 5 (CNA) Taiwan's armed forces have deployed more than 4,000 sorties of military aircraft so far this year to conduct patrol missions, a 20 percent increase compared with the same period of last year.

According to a Ministry of National Defense (MND) report sent to lawmakers Monday, amid increasing military coercion by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), the nation's military has carried out 4,132 sorties of military aircraft and 7,531 sorties of vessels to conduct joint surveillance, combat readiness, fishery patrol missions and exercises this year.

According to information released by the MND, between Sept. 16 and Oct. 4, PLA aircraft entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) and/or crossed the Taiwan Strait median line 11 times.

The report did not compare the sorties of military aircraft and vessels dispatched this year with the same period of a year ago but Defense Minister Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said late last month that the Air Force has so far this year dispatched 20 percent more aircraft on patrol missions compared with the same period of a year ago.

Meanwhile, the same MND report also said that during the live-fire section of this year's Han Kuang exercises in July, the military tested the newly formed combined arms battalions, F-16V fighter jets and "Clouded Leopard" eight-wheeled armored vehicles, to make sure they can work together with existing military units and boost the military's joint defense operation abilities.

The report said that Taiwan's military has allocated budgets to improve its radar surveillance abilities in response to the increasing military threat posed by Chinese stealth aircraft and unmanned combat aerial vehicles, according to a copy of the report Yen is scheduled to deliver in a Legislative Yuan hearing Wednesday that was sent to the Legislature on Monday.

(By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh)

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