《TAIPEI TIMES》 Combat readiness exercises launched

The 269 Brigade’s Clouded Leopard armored vehicles take part in the “immediate combat readiness drills” along Provincial Highway 31 in Taoyuan’s Cinpu District yesterday. Photo: CNA

/ Staff writer, with AP and CNA Taiwan yesterday launched five days of military drills aimed at boosting its combat readiness in case of a Chinese military attack.

The “immediate combat readiness drills” are meant to test how rapidly military units can deploy, especially in the face of a possible sudden escalation of Chinese “gray zone” warfare. “Gray zone” tactics refer to a range of aggressive tactics that vary from naval patrols to drone flights, but fall short of direct combat.

The exercises are meant to be realistic, the Ministry of National Defense said in a news release on Sunday, with an emphasis on “real-time, live-fire and on-site” training.

At the start of the drills yesterday morning, combat units immediately began moving to designated defensive positions across the country in preparation for repelling invading enemy forces.

In Taoyuan, home to Taiwan’s largest international airport, tanks drove down city streets and highways near Cingpu District （青埔）, videos and photos of the exercise showed, as armored vehicles from the army’s 269th Infantry Brigade conducted combat readiness patrols.

A defensive line in the Cingpu area is critical to the defense of northern Taiwan and preventing enemy forces from advancing into the Taipei and New Taipei City, where key political and economic centers are located, said Su Tzu-yun （蘇紫雲）, director of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s Defense Strategy and Resources Division.

Cingpu, which lies on the border between Taoyuan’s Jhongli （中壢） and Dayuan （大園） districts, is near Taoyuan high-speed rail station, the Taoyuan Airport MRT, National Freeway No. 2 and Provincial Highway 31, he said.

That makes Cingpu a major strategic location and transportation hub in northern Taiwan, he said.

The immediate combat readiness drills were first launched in March last year. At the time, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo （顧立雄） said the drills were introduced to counter the possibility of an escalation of the increasingly frequent “gray zone” harassment and threats by the Chinese military.

Meanwhile, the ministry yesterday said that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army sent 23 aircraft toward Taiwan from Sunday into yesterday morning. That was accompanied by seven Chinese navy ships and five other Chinese government vessels.

China has been sending fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis.

Up to 19 Chinese military aircraft on Sunday entered Taiwan’s southwestern airspace and continued into the western Pacific in a “far-sea long-range” training exercise, the ministry said.

In response to Chinese military pressure in the southwestern airspace, the armed forces in the south have been fully mobilized, with joint surveillance and reconnaissance systems deployed to closely monitor developments. The military yesterday performed an immediate show of readiness as residents on the Hengchun Peninsula （恆春半島） observed the deployment.

The navy’s Hai Feng Missile Brigade was ordered to move at short notice, and a number of Hsiung Feng II and Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile systems — referred to as “carrier killers” — were positioned to frontline areas of the peninsula.

Additional reporting by Tsai Tsung-hsun 新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES

Missile launchers take part in the “immediate combat readiness drills” on the Hengchun Peninsula yesterday. Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times