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Live-fire war games set for September, to feature jet landing drill

ROC Central News Agency

08/10/2021 04:11 PM

Taipei, Aug. 10 (CNA) The live-fire component of this year's Han Kuang exercises will be held Sept. 13-17 and will include emergency takeoff and landing drills by fighter planes on public highways, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Tuesday.

The new schedule for the live-fire exercises, which had been postponed from mid-July, was confirmed during a virtual press conference by Major General Lin Wen-huang (林文皇) of the MND's Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Staff for Operations and Planning.

The Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan's major war games, have been held annually since 1984 in the form of live-fire drills and computerized war games to test the nation's combat readiness in the event of an invasion by China.

This year, the live-fire exercises had been scheduled to start July 12 and run for five days but were later canceled due to a domestic outbreak of COVID-19. Before the outbreak started in mid-May, the tabletop drills had already been held April 23-30.

As part of upcoming exercises in September, fighter jets will conduct a series of emergency takeoffs and landings on the Jiadong section of Provincial Highway No. 1 in Pingtung County, Lin said.

It will be the first time that such a drill will be conducted on the Jiadong stretch, one of five sections that were built in Taiwan to accommodate emergency military jet landings and takeoffs in the event of a war.

The drill will simulate a scenario in which Taiwan's military and civilian airports and airstrips are seriously damaged by enemy fire, and the fighter jets have to land on the highway, according to Lin.

The other emergency landing strips are on Freeway No. 1 -- on the Madou and Rende sections in Tainan County, the Huatan section in Changhua County, and the Minxiong section in Chiayi County.

The live-fire drill will not be open to the public for security reasons, Lin said, adding that the media will receive press releases but will not be permitted to do live coverage.

Meanwhile a Tuo Chiang-class stealth multi-mission corvette that was delivered to the Navy in late July will not participate in this year's Han Kuang exercises, according to MND spokesperson Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文).

The Ta Chiang is still being tested and will not be commissioned until September, but it will be ready for the military exercises in the next fiscal year, Shih said.

(By Matt Yu and Ko Lin)

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