Taiwan conflict video games to simulate repelling a Chinese language drill that turns into assault By Reuters

By Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s annual conflict video games this yr will apply “kill” zones at sea to interrupt a blockade and simulate a situation the place China abruptly turns considered one of its common drills across the island into an precise assault, the defence ministry stated on Tuesday.

China, which views democratically ruled Taiwan as its territory, has been staging common workout routines across the island for the previous 4 years, to stress Taipei to simply accept Beijing’s declare of sovereignty, regardless of Taiwan’s robust objections.

Taiwan begins its important annual Han Kuang workout routines this month with desk prime drills, prolonged from a extra standard 5 days to eight given the variety of eventualities to be included, adopted in July by precise fight workout routines, the ministry stated.

Tung Chih-hsing, head of the ministry’s joint fight planning division, instructed a information briefing the drills would apply the right way to speedily reply to considered one of China’s drills abruptly turning into an assault, one thing army planners have begun to fret about, contemplating their regularity.

How completely different branches of the armed forces can mount a coordinated response to a Chinese language blockade can be one other focus, Tung stated.

The drills will combine naval, air and coast guard forces, shore-mounted anti-ship weapons and drones to ascertain a maritime “assault and kill chain”, he added.

“As well as, (we’ll) use naval and air forces and coast guard ships to collectively perform escort operations” to make sure sea and air hyperlinks to the surface world stay open, Tung stated.

Throughout one main spherical of conflict video games round Taiwan in April of final yr, China practised precision strikes and blockading the island.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years in the past, Taiwan has been trying to see what classes it may possibly study and combine into its personal workout routines, particularly how the a lot smaller Ukrainian forces have been capable of fend off the bigger Russian army.

Tung stated these would once more function this yr, together with the teachings discovered from the conflict in Gaza.

For each of these conflicts, Tung stated officers have been the usage of psychological warfare and uneven operations particularly, although with out explaining precisely how they might determine within the drills.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has championed the concept of “uneven warfare”, to make its forces, additionally a lot smaller than China’s extra cellular and exhausting to assault, with for instance vehicle-mounted missiles and drones.

(This story has been refiled to repair a typo in paragraph 5)