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Taiwan's Han Kuang exercises to begin Monday with tabletop wargames

ROC Central News Agency

05/14/2023 03:33 PM

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) The tabletop wargames phase of Taiwan's annual Han Kuang series of military exercises will begin on Monday, simulating the nation's armed forces responses to a potential Chinese invasion based on the latest threats posed by the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

As in previous years, this year's Han Kuang will be held in two stages.

The tabletop war games phase will be held from Monday through Friday and the live-fire exercise component is scheduled for July 24-28, according to Major General Lin Wen-huang (林文皇), who is in charge of planning at the Ministry of National Defense (MND), at a late April press event.

The computerized wargames will be conducted using the United States-built Joint Theater Level Simulation (JTLS) platform to simulate joint, combined, and coalition civil-military operations at the operational level, Lin said.

Those simulations will be held around the clock for five days in a row to test the ability of military personnel to coordinate and launch a response to a Chinese invasion, Lin said.

A number of potential invasion scenarios will be run during the wargames based on the latest military threats posed by the PLA which has recently sent warplanes and warships to surround Taiwan.

However, Lin stressed that whether the invaders or defenders ultimately win the invasion scenarios are not as important as what Taiwan's armed forces learn from these simulations because the JTLS is a training session.

Deputy Chief of General Staff on Training Lieutenant General Chang Chun-chih (張俊志) said at the same April 26 press event that the training session will test the military's responses to all kinds of potential invasion scenarios and how to act accordingly.

At the end of the five-day wargames, the MND will conduct a thorough review to determine whether there are ways to improve responsive measures, he added.

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 Taiwan's combat readiness in the face of a possible Chinese invasion.

This year will mark the 39th edition of the annual exercises, which are Taiwan's most important military drills that include all branches of the armed forces.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/AW