Taiwan has begun deploying its newest and most precise strike weapons, high calibre rockets from the United States, as part of its annual live-fire drills to increase the island’s ability to counter potential attacks from China.
On Saturday, two armoured trucks with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) were seen manoeuvring around the city of Taichung near Taiwan’s central coast, on the fourth of 10 days of the Han Kuang exercise, its most comprehensive annual exercise, according to the Reuters news agency.
Military spokesperson Colonel Chen Lian-jia said it would be crucial to conceal the HIMARS from enemy aerial reconnaissance, satellites, “or even enemy operatives behind our lines” until the order to fire was given.
China considers Taiwan its own province and has long threatened to use force to bring it under Beijing’s control.
Over the past five years, China has increased pressure around the island, staging a string of intense war games and daily naval and air force patrols around the territory.
Earlier this week, China’s Ministry of National Defense said the Han Kuang drills were “nothing but a bluffing and self-deceiving trick”. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that its opposition to US-Taiwan military ties was “consistent and very firm”.
On Thursday, Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te said the exercises were being conducted based on “large-scale, realistic combat drills”.
Last year, Taiwan received the first 11 of the 29 HIMARS units, testing them for the first time in May.
The weapons, which have a range of about 300km (190 miles), have the potential to strike coastal targets in China’s southern province of Fujian on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
While the United States, Taiwan’s biggest supplier of imported defensive weaponry, is bound by law to consider threats to the country as a “major concern”, it remains unclear if Washington, DC, under President Donald Trump’s administration, would deploy forces to counter a possible Chinese attack.
Reuters reported, quoting unnamed senior Taiwanese military officials, that the drills were unscripted and designed to replicate full combat conditions, starting with simulated enemy attacks and invasion scenarios.
The drills aim to show China and the international community, including the US, that Taiwan is determined to defend itself against any Chinese attack, the officials said.
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