Military stages rehearsal for drill to defend New Taipei beach
ROC Central News Agency
07/18/2023 07:07 PM
New Taipei, July 18 (CNA) Taiwan's military on Tuesday held a rehearsal for a drill to repel an amphibious attack on a beach in New Taipei's Bali District, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND).
The rehearsal, at one of the "red beaches" identified as a potentially vulnerable to an attack by Chinese forces, saw an offensive "red" team simulating a marine assault with the use of 20 AAV7 amphibious assault vehicles, the defense ministry said.
On the opposite side of the exercise, a defensive "blue" team detonated explosives and anti-infrared smoke grenades to simulate a defense of the beach, while also deploying reconnaissance drones to identify enemy targets.
According to the MND, the exercise involved the use of OH-58 Kiowa and AH-64 Apache helicopters, indigenous defense fighter (IDF) jets, Min Jiang-class minelayer ships and the newly-commissioned Yushan landing platform dock.
Also on Tuesday, the military rehearsed an emergency landing and takeoff drill at the civilian Taitung Airport, in which four F-16s landed, and were refueled and reloaded with bombs before taking off again, the defense ministry said.
The rehearsals Wednesday were among several the military has staged in recent weeks ahead of the live-fire portion of Taiwan's annual Han Kuang military exercises held from July 24-28.
In addition to their past focus on defending the area around the Port of Taipei and the mouth of the Tamsui River, this year's Han Kuang exercises will also include the landing drill in Taitung and the first-ever anti-takeover drill at Taoyuan International Airport, according to the MND.
(By Matt Yu, Tyson Lu and Matthew Mazzetta)
Enditem/kb
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
